Mini-Review of "The Crooked Mirror - A Memoir of Polish-Jewish Reconciliation" by Louise Steinman

The timing of the publication of this book, "The Crooked Mirror," could not have been more fortuitous for me.  As I write this review, I am getting ready to board a plane to Krakow for the wedding of my son and his lovely Polish fiancee.  The book has given me a new perspective for understanding the continuing work of reconciliation that is going on to bring about rapprochement between Poles and Jews who escaped the Holocaust or who are descendants of those who suffered in one of the many death camps and concentration camps that the Third Reich built upon occupied Polish soil.

The book will also  serve as a catalyst for my continuing conversations with my son, daughter-in-law and her Polish Catholic family.  In previous trips to Poland, my son and his fiancee have taken me to places that Louise Steinman has written about in this memoir of her personal involvement in this reconciliation movement.  Her intimate descriptions of Krakow and its wonderfully preserved old city brought back memories and made me even more eager for this next trip to take place.  Our visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau gave rise to many of the same emotions and questions that the author chronicles as she described her own visits there.  Our visits to the Kazimierz ghetto - the cemetery, the recently-opened Holocaust Museum, Oskar Schindler's factory - all evoked deep thought and feelings.  My future daughter-in-law is a fine painter who occupies a studio loft in a building next door to the well known Fabrika Schindlera Amelia.  Her father owns a chain of very fine pastry shops, one of which is located in Kazimierz.  So, my own in-law's Catholic lives are closely interwoven with the Jewish history of Krakow and of Poland.

Ms. Steinman's family hailed from the small town of Radomsko, to which she has often returned looking for clues about how to feel about the loss of her family, about the role that Poles may have played in the Holocaust, and how mutual forgiveness and understanding can be achieved.  Much of her searching has been directed by being made aware of an English translation of the Yiddish "Sefer-yizkor li-kehilat Radomsk veha-seviva" - The Memorial Book of the Community of Radomsk and Vicinity.  In the wake of the Shoah, memorial books were written for many towns to ensure that the memory of those whose lives had been snuffed out in the Holocaust would remain alive for future generations.

The author is very transparent about the difficulties that she has had - and continues to have - making sense of the myriad of facts surrounding what happened in Poland during WWII. Were the Poles complicit in helping the Nazi to exterminate Jews?  Or were they courageous in sheltering Jewish children and families to ensure the survival of at least a remnant of those who had lived in Poland for many hundred of years beside their Christian neighbors?  This book is full of stories from both ends of the heroism-villainy spectrum.

Ms. Steinman's personal journey - geographic and emotional is part of a larger movement to seek true understanding and forgiveness across the chasms that were created between Poles and Jews by the seismic events of the Holocaust.  This book is a welcome addition to the tools for dialogue that are being produced.

Here is a link to some earlier Blog articles I have written about Krakow and Poland that are relevant to this topic.

White Rhino Report - Krakow+Holocaust Posts

Al

Fabrika Schindlera Amelia

I had no idea how much of 20^th Century history found its epicenter in Krakow.

One of Europe’s oldest universities was founded here in 1364 by King Casimir III. Among the school’s graduates were Copernicus and Pope John Paul II. Because of the welcoming policies of King Casimir, many Jews made their way to Krakow and they became a significant force in the city’s commercial, artistic and intellectual life over the course of over 500 years. Their vibrant community was centered on the Kazimiercz District, named in honor of King Casimir. During the Nazi occupation of Poland, most of the 68,000 Jews living in Krakow were forced to leave their homes and settle into a walled ghetto comprised of 320 homes. Less than 5% of those individuals survived the end of the war.

Of the 3,500 who did survive the Holocaust, over 1,100 of them owed their lives to Oskar Schindler, whose list was memorialized in Stephen Spielberg’s epic film. Schindler had bought the large enamel factory across the Vistula from the Kazimiriercz District, and I was able to hire many of the Jews who were living only a few hundred meters away in the new walled ghetto. Schindler’s humane treatment of his workers and his courageous actions during the war saved the lives of those whose release he purchased.

On Friday, my son Tim took me and my sister with him to the site of Schindler’s factory. The building is being renovated and turned into a proper museum. It is due to open to the public next week. Tim was able to persuade the watchman to let us get a sneak peek inside the museum. We were the first persons to view a short documentary film about Schindler and the making of the movie, “Schindler’s List.” We climbed the stairs and spent time in the Schindler’s office, where his life-saving list was compiled.

The story of what Schindler accomplished in sparing the lives of the 1,100 workers is one of the few “feel good” stories to come out of the horrors of the Holocaust.

As we returned to the Kazimiercz District, Tim brought us to see the Jewish cemetery there. A wall has been constructed using broken pieces of gravestones that had been desecrated during the Nazi occupation. We also visited a museum dedicated to tell the stories of the Jews of Galacia – now part of Southern Poland and Western Ukraine. Most of the Jews of Galacia were annihilated during the Holocaust, many of them dying in the death camps surrounding Krakow.

As you can imagine, this visit to Krakow has been full of learning and of deep emotional responses to the sad history that occurred in and around this beautiful city.

Al

Report from Krakow

I have arrived safely in Poland, and am having a memorable visit with my son Tim, my son, Ti and his family, my sister, Di and many of Tim’s Polish and ex-patriot friends who live here in Krakow. My trip by way of London offered a bit of adventure, since British Air managed to misplace one of my two checked bags – the one that contained a Dell laptop computer and an HP printer I was delivering to my sons. The missing bag was eventually located, and delivered to Tim’s flat in Krakow – much to my relief!

Krakow is a gorgeous city – the artistic center of Poland. It survived WWII virtually intact, so many of the ancient churches, castles and historic buildings lend it a medieval air that no longer exists in much of the rest of Middle Europe. As I was walking along the street, I encountered my very first street musician bassoonist!

We spent much of yesterday touring the museums at Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Several images will remain indelibly imprinted in my memory – the iconic sign over the main entrance: Arbeit Macht Frei. The room full of human hair – taken from recently executed prisoners and intended for use in textile mills. The train track running through the main gate at Birkenau – branching into three tracks from which arriving prisoners were separated into groups that would be immediately executed in the gas chambers or those who would join the work teams living in subhuman conditions. Few survived those conditions for more than a few months.

The scale of the atrocities carried out at Auschwitz and the dozen of other camps is beyond my comprehension. Over the years, I have read extensively about the Holocaust, but no amount of reading or viewing films or even visiting the physical sites where the killings took place is enough to help me grasp the enormity of the suffering that was visited upon the victims of the Holocaust – and their survivors. I have a friend whose father survived Auschwitz, so I wrote a note in a book of remembrance in memory of Otto Goldschmitt.

Tomorrow, we will visit the site of the Krakow Ghetto and the location of Oscar Schindler’s factory.

Let us never forget!

Al

Happy Hanukkah

I am blessed to have friends who practice a wide variety of religions. I do, indeed, have many friends of the Jewish faith. To them on this special day I offer my wishes for a Happy Hanukkah.

There is a special poignancy to this year’s holiday wishes, since I will soon be traveling to Poland to visit with family. As part of our time in Krakow, we plan to make a pilgrimage to Auschwitz to pay tribute to the memory of those who died there during the horrors of the Holocaust. I have plans to place a note in the book of remembrance in memory of the father of a friend of mine.

May we never forget - as we light candles this holiday season to remember the many forms that man’s cruelty and God’s intervention have taken over the centuries.

God bless.

Al