Interesting Contrasts in Krakow, Poland

From Prague, we took a train to Krakow, Poland, which (along with Prague) has one of the few Old Towns in Europe that was not destroyed by bombs during World War II. While a bit more subdued than Prague, Krakow is also a very pleasant place to wander for a few days.

Here are some tourists walking through Old Town Krakow...















What I perhaps found most interesting, though, is a bit of a spiritual dichotomy that exists in the city. For one, Krakow is the nearest city to Auschwitz, the home of the World War II era concentration camp. It’s a very somber experience to tour Auschwitz. The dormitories where prisoners were housed in inhumane conditions. The cremation rooms and gas chambers where the Nazis pursued their goal of exterminating an entire race of people. And, most shockingly, the displays of piles and piles of shoes and suitcases and hairbrushes and human hair, all of which once belonged to human beings who were murdered by the Nazis for no other reason than their ethnicity.

I say Krakow has a spiritual dichotomy, though, because there is also a strong sense of spirituality in this city that is only miles from Auschwitz. It is the city where Karol Wojtyla served as Archbishop before he passed into history as Pope John Paul II, and memories of the late Pope are everywhere in town. Not only that, but Krakow has the unusual distinction of being the site of one of the world’s seven chakras, or energy centers (at least according to Hindu beliefs), along with such places as Jerusalem, Rome and Mecca. It’s a strange pairing of the best and the worst of humanity, you might say, for Krakow has seen perhaps the most hideous evil and some of the most vital spirituality of the past century.

A view of Auschwitz...