Seweryn Udziela Ethnographic Museum/Historic Museum of Krakow
On Wednesday and Thursday I had the opportunity to tour more of Krakow’s fascinating museums, with the first one being the Ethnographic museum. This museum was about the cultural evolvement of not just Krakow, but Poland as a whole. The multiple exhibits displayed the lifestyles, religious and cultural ceremonial practices, along with tools and items that were used in daily lives. It starts off in the early 20th century and leads into the 21st century, gracefully showing examples of growth and/or replacement of different elements of the human ways of life in Poland. I was fascinated seeing how some of the classrooms were set up during the early 1930s, showing how the desks were laid out, as well as the tools teachers used. There were also multiple figures throughout the museum that displayed the style of wear that was seen in multiple time periods of Polish history. It showed some of the uniforms of soldiers, policemen, people of high/low class, as well as different cultural outfits. This museum truly enlightened me on the evolvement of humans demographically in Poland.
On Thursday we visited the Historic Museum of Krakow, which was a museum that included many biographies of victims of the Holocaust. From what I could see, there were at least 100 biographies spread out all across the room that were displayed in a “folded card” manner against the walls. It was truly heartbreaking to hear their stories, as many were executed for small violations of German occupied Poland’s laws. Most were either done on the streets publicly, or sent to concentrations camps where they were either killed right away or were worked/starved to death. It was also hard to see some of the outfits that were displayed in the museum of many whom were victims of this tragedy. We also got a chance to walk inside some of the actual prison cells that were used towards the end of WWII into the Soviet occupied Poland era. Being able to see the writings on the walls, and having posters from the museum that translated what they were saying was truly heartbreaking. Especially knowing many died in the cells and never got a chance to see their loved ones again.
Overall, seeing these museums have been getting me prepared for what may be the hardest day of my life tomorrow…visiting Auschwitz. My blog is really going to be intense tomorrow night fare warning, but it will help a lot to be able to vent all the feelings I will have after the visit. However, today was an awesome day of celebrating for all of the Universities here in Krakow as we had a parade and many other “fun” festivities. I’ll be writing a blog later about my experience!
