Slice of Life Photography by Michael Dubiner

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In September 1939, Krakow was captured so quickly by the Germans that it avoided the prolonged bombing and destruction that devastated other conquered European cities. I have not been able to determine why the Nazi's allowed synagogues and other structures clearly identifiable with Judaism to remain standing in Kazimierz. Whatever the reason, the fact that much of Kazimierz remains intact made this photographic exploration possible.

Jews resided in Kazimierz for over a century before Columbus voyaged to the America's. Many of the Religion's greatest spiritual leaders lived and taught there. They built synagogues, cemeteries and other institutions necessary for the functioning of a Jewish community.

Jewish Krakow Today

I am not religious, but I was disheartened spending Friday evening, the start of the Jewish Sabbath on Szeroka Street, the core of the prewar Jewish community of Kazimierz. On this night, fashionable people arrived in expensive cars and were eating in quaint outdoor restaurants soaking up the ambiance of the neighborhood. Before the war, these streets would have been filled with Orthodox Jews, hurrying to the scores of synagogues in the vicinity.

Before this project, I knew little of my parents Holocaust experiences and almost nothing about their family life before the war. I wrongly assumed that Kazimierz, and indeed all other remains of Jewish existence in Poland were destroyed during the war. In preparation for this trip, I researched the history of the Jews in Kazimierz and my mother shared with me the story of her life before the war and her nightmarish existence as a slave laborer and concentration camp inmate.

On this Friday evening, local children were enjoying a game of soccer in the courtyard of the Altschul, the oldest synagogue in Poland. From the year 1407 until the German takeover in 1939, on any Friday evening, this courtyard would have been crowded with the faithful congregating to welcome the Sabbath with prayer. The playful children were showing no disrespect. There are virtually no Jews left to pray in Kazimierz and the Altshul no longer operates as a synagogue. The prewar Jewish population of Krakow numbered over 60,000, the vast majority of whom perished during the war. That number today is estimated at 200.