Before leaving Krakow today we stopped by Schindler's Factory and the Jewish memorial. This was near and dear to my heart because of the emphasis I place on Krakow and Schindler in my curricular studies. I think it is important for the student's to witness the imperfect perfection of the man, and to know that there were Nazi's working from the inside to help the Jews during this horrific event in history. The Holocaust wasn't just 6 million Jewish murders by the Germans. It was genocide of the worst kind of any who dared be different than what Hitler's Nazi party declared. People found themselves on the wrong side and tried to set that right. Schindler was just one of many who defied the Nazi party to put themselves at risk to do what they could, but I find his story - one of a greedy, wealthy and selfish man turned by the horrors of genocide - to be one of the most interesting studies in psychology and human sacrifice to be documented.
After leaving Krakow we traveled through Slovakia, stopping for lunch, and passing a Medieval Castle on a hillside. The countryside of Poland and Slovakia was beautiful - riddled with forests and cottage gardens. Many men were out with their pony carts loading up wood from the edges of the forests. I felt we stepped back about 500 years in time as we drove.
I could have stopped and stayed a week, wandering the river banks, exploring the castles and walking along the endless, rolling pastures.
