Another Pespective

I’ve been sending my blog to Professor Elliot Lefkovitz, the professor I had last fall for a Holocaust and 20th Century Genocide class at Loyola.  After I sent him my last post about the Jew figurine phenomenon here in Poland, he sent me this response via email.  I thought I would share it with you, as it adds another perspective to the overall discussion and I thought at least some of you would find it interested.

It reads:

We were in Poland in 2000. We stayed in Cracow, and I went to Auschwitz on a tour, but although I have some powerful and arresting memories, there were many people and a bit too much commercialization for the experience to sink in. I then rented a car and driver and went to Majdanek, near Lublin (My wife does not visit concentration camps). The experience at Majdanek was overwhelming in every way especially since it was late afternoon and I was the only one there.  Surrounded by ashes of the victims, the crematorium and gas chamber, the barracks, especially the barracks filled with shoes and the barbed wire, it was not difficult to imagine the suffering and cries of those imprisoned there.

I just interviewed a survivor of the Warsaw ghetto who was sent to Majdanek. Many of those in the railway car in which she rode there were dead by the time they arrived due to suffocation. The survivor was immediately sent to hard labor, but for some infraction she received 25 lashes from an SS woman. Somehow she survived. A few weeks later someone was missing from the appel. All the prisoners had to kneel until the missing prisoner was found. She had fallen asleep from exhaustion. The prisoners were forced to watch her hanging. But while the noose was around her neck and before the stool was kicked out, the SS hangman asked if she had a last wish. She said,” I don’t want anything from you.” He asked again. She said, “A glass of water.” Satisfied that he had gotten her to ask for something thereby demonstrating his power, he quickly kicked the stool out from under her. The survivor I interviewed was transported from Majdanek to Auschwitz in July 1943. She remained there until January 1945. Her suffering in Majdanek pales to what she went through in Auschwitz.

I bought not a figurine but a carved wooden Jewish figure which fits into Category Four-Jewish suffering. It depicts as Orthodox Jewish man embracing two children who stand facing him. He hands are on their heads trying to shield them. It might be possible to interpret the shielding as blessing but not from the look on his face.  The figures are completely clothed in black.

It was fascinating to learn about the other types of figures.

If any of you have an opinion you would like to add about any of the topics I raise in these posts, please leave a comment at the end of the post.  I know I am interested in what you all have to say, and I am sure others are as well.

Czesc Krakow!

Hello Krakow!  Wow, we have been in Poland two and a half days already?  My apologies for not writing another post sooner, but it has been a busy two and a half days.  They have been very busy and enjoyable so far!  Krakow is an absolutely beautiful city which, unlike Warsaw which was almost completely destroyed by bombs during WWII, still has a very old-world feel.  We are especially lucky because, unlike the first time I visited Krakow three years ago, we are staying right in the Stare Miasto (Old Town) rather than in the more newly developed area of the city.

A typical street in the Stare Miasto (Old Town) of Krakow

Our first few days in Krakow have been fairly unstructured so far, which has been fabulous.  Our Polish leader Maciek, who works in the Education Department at the Auschwitz Jewish Center, lead us on a tour of Krakow the first day.  While Warsaw is the capital of modern Poland, Krakow was the capital of Poland from 1038-1596.  Poland is home to the Wawel Castle, seat of the Polish kings since Casimir III the Great (an important figure for Jewish Polish history, incidentally, I will probably discuss him later) in the 14th century.

Wawel Castle, home of the Medieval Polish kings

The view of the Vistula River from Wawel Hill

In addition to the beautiful Wawel Castle the oldest university in Poland and the 2nd oldest university in Central Europe, Jagiellonian University, which was founded in 1364.

View of the courtyard of Jagiellonian University

The old town of Krakow also hosts a beautiful market square, the largest medieval town square in Europe.  One end of the market square is dominated by the beautiful Church of St. Mary’s.  Legend has it that in the 13th century, Mongol invaders attempted to take Krakow.  A trumpeter, spotting the Mongols from the top of the church tower, warned the city of Krakow of the impending invasion by playing his trumpet and thus ruined the Mongol’s surprise attack.  While the city of Krakow was saved, the trumpeter himself gave his life for his city; immediately after giving the warning he was shot in the throat by a crossbow arrow.  Today, every hour on the hour a trumpeter plays a tune from the top of St. Mary’s four times, once in each direction.  On the fourth rendition of the tune, the trumpeter stops short in the middle of the piece, symbolizing the death of the original trumpeter by an invader’s arrow.

Church of St. Mary’s. A good place to spot a Mongol horde.

The center piece of the square is the Sukiennice, the Cloth Hall.  Once, as the name would imply, a building where cloth merchants sold their wares, the Cloth Hall now houses stalls where tourists can buy beer steins, t-shirts, amber jewelry (a specialty of Poland’s), lacquered boxes, and just about anything with a dragon on it (an unofficial symbol of the city).

Cloth Hall, Stare Miastro in Krakow

In the Cloth Hall, as in many of the tourist shops in Krakow, you can also by Jew doll figurines.  Oh yes.  These little carved wooden (though sometimes clay) figurines show stereotyped representations of Jews and can be found in many of the stores in Krakow (and I believe throughout Poland, though I have only been to Krakow so far).

Typical Jewish Figurines, a problematic souvenir ubiquitous to Krakow

These figurines are fascinating to me as a Public Historian, as someone interested in issues of collective memory, and as a Holocaust scholar.  Initially I viewed these figurines much like the representations of Native Americans we see in the United States.  Jews in Poland, much like Native Americans in the United States, were once a major presence.  Today, however, their culture has been almost entirely wiped out here, and now their absence is being marked by the sale of figurines that mark them as “the other” and show them in an incredibly limited and stereotyped way.

There is a fascinating exhibit currently at the Ethnographic Museum here in Krakow focusing entirely on these Jewish figurines.  I spent about two hours there this afternoon with some of the other fellows and found the exhibit amazing and incredibly thought-provoking.  While I still find these figurines problematic, there is also levels of complexity here I did not originally consider.

Unfortunately it’s 1:30am here in Krakow, so an analysis and discussion of the issues raised by these figurines will not be forthcoming tonight.  Tomorrow, however. I will be sure to leave time to compose my thoughts on this subject.