The Jewish Community Center, or the JCC, sits nestled in the center of Krakow, Poland. The JCC, established in 2008, describe themselves as the focal point of the resurgence of Jewish life in Krakow.
They encourage those who only recently found out about their Jewish roots or have previously ignored those roots to visit their center.
Olga Adamowska, the JCC’s head of educational program, hosts classes and visits local schools to teach about Jewish history.
Adamowska grew up with Christian Polish traditions, but always learned about Jewish history. She remembers her bookshelves at home were lined with literature about the Holocaust.
As a five year old, she visited the Auschwitz concentration camp on a family trip.
“That was normal topic, you know. Concentration camps, you know, the killing jews. Normal topic,” Adamowska said.
In 1994, during another family trip, her family visited Krakow to learn about Jewish culture. At that time, Adamowska said Krakow was seen as a dangerous place to visit.
These trips aroused Adamowska’s suspicions.
“I was like, ‘Okay, so what's going on?’ Because it's a bit creepy to talk all the time about Hholocaust and … like going to the, you know, not funny place when you're a kid,” Adamowska said.
When she was 12, Adamowska finally asked her mother about these trips and their family investment in Jewish culture. In a matter of fact way, her mother said they have jewish heritage. To her mother, it wasn’t something she was hiding, but not something she was being direct about either.
Adamowska wasn’t exactly shocked at the discovery, but it took her years to recognize the importance of her Jewish and Polish identity.
Soon, Adamowska began piecing her family history together.
Her Jewish grandmother was the family’s link to their heritage, but after she passed away, building their family tree has been difficult. There were certain stories that Adamowska felt were hard to ask about, like her grandmother’s brother passing away during the Second World War.
“I knew that it's so difficult to ask the questions because I couldn't imagine when I was a kid how is to lose your brother during a war,” Adamowska said. “So I never want to push this story.”
Now, she’s learning about her family’s history through photos and distant family members. Through the process, she’s realized what’s been lost.
“It's like very painful sometimes because I understand that I will never see my family tree in the same way, like other Jews,” Adamowska said. “I lost that, and I will never say that, ‘Okay, this is the tradition of my family.’”
In the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Museum deputy director Jolanta Gumula said some people visit after discovering their heritage.
Gumula said this journey of discovery is a common story.
“During the Second World War, it is … it was common story that a lot of Jews had false documents, yes, like Aryan documents with Christian names, especially children,” Gumula said.
Under the Nazi regime, false documents were a survival tactic. However, these false identities were not enough. Jewish people had to memorize Christian prayers, stop speaking Yiddish and change their appearance.
Gumula also said Polish women would save Jewish children by raising them as Poles.
“A lot of those women started to treat those kids like their own kids, and they didn't … they didn't tell them that you know ‘You are a Jew.’ They raised them up as Catholic girls, as Catholic people,” Gumula said.
In Poland, Gumula said the number of people who identify as Jewish is 17,000, a stark decrease from the 3.5 million living there in 1939. Today, they make up less than 1% of the Polish population.
However, Adamowska said the number can never truly be known because some either don’t claim their Jewish heritage or don’t know about it.
Adamowska said the world still views Krakow and its Jewish population in the shadow of the Holocaust. As she walks through the city’s Jewish district, she’ll hear tour guides who neglect the current Jewish population living there.
“I once heard when someone was saying that, before the world [war], was a huge community here, and right now the Jews are only in the cemetery. And then I feel like it's not fine because I'm staying here and I'm living here,” Adamowska said.
She makes it clear the community is growing and thriving. She said very often people come to the JCC, looking for community and guidance in their first steps in unraveling their identity with similar stories to hers.
This story is in partnership with Fuente Latina.
