Kazimierz Streets & Alleys
Street in Kazimierz,
the old Jewish quarter
Kazimierz remained a completely separate
town, outside of Old Town Krakow, until 1791 when it was incorporated
into the city of Krakow by the Austro-Hungarian occupation government.
Jews from England, France, Italy, Spain and Bohemia, who were
being persecuted and expelled, had flocked to Poland for over
400 years, and Kazimierz had become a prosperous town. The Jewish
district in eastern Kazimierz eventually expanded into the western
Christian section, until in 1818 the wall between the two sections
was torn down and the Jews were no longer required to live in
a ghetto.
During the German occupation of Poland,
3,000 Jews living in Kazimierz were forced to move into a ghetto
set up in the Podgorze district across the river Vistula. The
Nazis chose Podgorze, according to the tour guide, because it
had a high bluff overlooking it from which they could watch the
activity in the ghetto. Kazimierz was used by Stephen Spielberg
as the location for filming scenes of the Podgorze ghetto in
Schindler's List.
The photograph below shows one of the
old buildings in Kazimierz, which a television film crew was
using for a background when I visited in 1998. I had read in
several travel guidebooks about tourists being accosted by Polish
alcoholics on the streets of Kazimierz, and sure enough, a belligerent
drunk appeared and shouted at this film crew and the tourists
who were watching.
Polish TV station filming
in Kazimierz in Oct. 1998
The photos below show the narrow streets,
alleys and courtyards of Kazimierz, which have been left just
the way they were before World War II. Only
the writing on the wall on the left indicates that this photo
was taken in modern times.
Alley between old buildings
in Kazimierz
Narrow cobble stone
street in Kazimierz
Apartment in narrow
alley behind ul. Szeroka
Courtyard in Jewish
quarter of Kazimierz
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