Arbeit Macht Frei

For Easter, Katie Duda, being the cool person she is, suggested we go to Krakow, Poland - a highly religious city in a highly Catholic country where the Easter celebrations were sure to be uplifting. Unlike the Czechs, the Poles fought under Communism for their faith. They held secret prayer meetings and updated Bible translations illegally to continue their Christian traditions within the family. When Communism was over, they rejoiced at the opportunity to freely practice their faith again, and, even as the years go by, their excitement has not faded.

To get there without losing any daytime, we took an overnight train from Prague to arrive bright and early in Krakow at 5.30 am - too early to check into our hostel, which was a good 20 minute walk away. So, we dropped off our stuff and walked around the deserted city at dawn... and then we walked, and walked, and walked some more. In fact, we walked from 5:30 am to 5:30 pm with very few pauses to stop and sit down. Traveling with two very devout Catholics on Good Friday, I was the odd one out not fasting. Hence, my complaints of hunger were not heeded nor appreciated, and sitting down with a bite to eat in front of them was a bit out of the question!

Despite my wrenching stomach, the positive atmosphere of the city at Easter was really stirring, especially having come directly from the Czech Republic, proudly the most atheistic country in Europe. There was a church on every corner, but the difference was that they were actually filled, and not just with tourists; the whole city was alive with Easter decorations and spring fever; there were last-minute preparations for the Passion play in the town square; people were dressed up and laughing, drinking coffee in cafes in the beautiful spring weather. It was a peaceful feeling to celebrate with the city instead of feeling like an outcast, that Easter was more than just an opportunity to decorate eggs and for boys to whip girls with birch branches (a Czech tradition that supposedly brings women youth and beauty, though I have only noticed a few additional bruises).

Krakow being as small as it is, we saw most of the city within the first few hours of walking (did I mention that we did a lot of walking?), including the Cloth Market, Wawel Castle, the old city gates and a multitude of churches and cathedrals. So, we decided to delve further south past the castle walls into Kalimierz… the old Jewish quarter.

At one point, there were over 70,000 Jews living in Krakow, most of which lived in Kalimierz before being moved to the Jewish ghetto across the river preceding WWII. Today, Krakow’s old Jewish quarter is still dotted with synagogues, cemeteries, a bustling coffee-house culture, and, of course, memorials to the 69,900 of those Jews that died in the Holocaust… for those of us that aren’t that great at math, that means that now only 100 Jews reside in greater Krakow.

In fact, almost 1/6 of Poland’s population died in WWII, including most of its Jewish population. While the Czechs surrendered almost without a fight, thus saving their beautiful cities and saving their people from Nazi revenge, the Polish fought back. And they paid for it. Hitler opposed the entire Polish nation and persecuted them for their devout faith (both Jewish and Catholic), for being highly educated, for being gay, and just for being Polish. On top of the hundreds of men that died in combat fighting against the Nazi regime, Germans conducted routine shootings in the middle of the street simply to reduce the Polish population itself. And, of course, they were shipped to Auschwitz.

Auschwitz, only a short bus ride from the center of Krakow, was hazy and not very crowded on the Saturday before Easter, making the whole experience even more harrowing. Every detail within the camp was simply a reminder that the whole place functioned solely as a murdering machine: train tracks ran directly through the camp, laid down only to haul people to their death; graveyards of chimney spires from prisoner barracks, their wooden bodies long gone, as far as the eye could see; stores of old shoes, clothes, and suitcases collected from the prisoners.

Our tour guide, actually the curator of the museum, was as passionate about us understanding the plight of the Polish people during the war as he was about the history of Auschwitz itself. Each room brought new stories of suffering, of pain, and of hope – enveloped by a place where such terrible things happened, a true testament to the terrible things that we are capable of, Mirek wanted us to understand that hope prevailed. We walked around the camp in somber silence, trying to take in everything he had said and doing our best not to break down with each new piece of information. How could something like this happen?

“Arbeit Macht Frei” (“Work makes you free”) was the phrase crowning the entrance gate. But free from what was not explicated. But, Polish people of every age, race, sex, and religion worked side by side for that freedom, a freedom that most of them would only encounter in death. Today, the Polish people appreciate their true freedom with such vigor and, following the Holocaust and Soviet occupation, truly embrace the ability to live their lives and practice their faith without intervention… but only an echo of their Jewish history remains.
Some people in our tour mentioned that it was a bit strange to be so heavily exploring Jewish history while in such a Catholic country and on the most important Christian holiday, but it made complete sense to me. Apart from gaining a broader vision of Polish history and how it has shaped its people, it seemed right to repent about the terrible acts we as humans have committed against our brothers and sisters because of racial and religious hatred and to remember the horrific acts that we are all capable of on the day we celebrate the grace we were freely given. While it’s easy to blame something as horrible as the Holocaust on someone else, it is mankind itself that should accept the guilt because of the pure ability we possess to do such appalling things. I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated Easter more.


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