Take advantage of the unique flavor Krakow has to offer. CEA offers a variety
of local immersion activities to match your interests. Whether you enjoy music
concerts, clubs, sports, language exchanges or something
entirely different, our resident staff can help you get involved in the local
culture. Here are just some examples.
"Journey of Witnessing and Healing", with Holocaust Survivor, Bernard Offen
Mr. Bernard Offen was born in 1929 in Krakow-Podgorze, Poland, which later became the Krakow Ghetto. He survived five camps - Plaszow, Julag, Mauthausen, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Dachau-Kaufering. During the ghetto period, Mr. Offen's mother and sister were deported to Belzec concentration camp where they were murdered. Following the liquidation of the ghetto in 1943, Mr. Offen was moved to the Plaszów slave labor camp from which he escaped. After a brief period in the Judenlager (Julag I), he was transferred once again to Plaszów. When Plaszów was liquidated in 1944, Mr. Offen, his father and two brothers were deported to Mathausen concentration camp in Austria, then to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he and his father were separated for the last time. Here his arm was tattooed #B-7815 by the SS. After spending three months at Birkenau suffering from typhus, Mr. Offen was sent to Dachau concentration camp in late 1944. American Allied forces liberated him.
"As a way of witnessing, and to better understand what happened, you will walk and try to experience some of the actual sites where this global tragedy occurred, my birthplace, and places where my family and I lived during the war.... It's still in the earth and in the air", Bernard Offen.
Preview your experience on the tour by watching one of Bernard's videos on YouTube!
In the Footsteps of Oskar Shindler
Students will recognize many scenes from “Shindler’s List,” Spielberg's movie about the Nazi occupation of Kraków. Students will walk over the Postańców Śląskich Bridge, across the river Vistula, into the Podgórze district of Kraków where 20,000 Polish Jews were crammed into a ghetto, surrounded by barbed wire fences and a stone wall between 1941 and 1943. CEA will also visit Oskar Scindler’s “Deutsche Emalienwaren” factory, which stands alone and almost forgotten at 4 Lipowa Street. Schindler saved the lives of more than 1000 Polish Jews by providing them with jobs in his factory. Students will also have the chance to see the nearby Płaszów concentration camp and the remaining parts of the ghetto wall. The tour will end in the old Jewish quarter of Kazimierz, where the Old Synagogue and the Remuh Synagogue and cemetery stand as a reminder that the area was once a thriving Jewish community. Today in Kazimierz there is a revival of Jewish life and activity, including the annual Jewish Cultural Festival at the end of June. Many of the residents of Kazimierz were murdered at nearby Auschwitz-Birkenau, where students will further explore this tragic episode of Poland's history.
Martyrdom Museum in Auschwitz-Birkenau
This former Nazi concentration camp is located in the industrial town of Oświęcim, in the province of Upper Silesia, thirty miles west of Kraków. Auschwitz was at the center of the Nazi plan to eliminate the Jews of Europe. Up to two million people perished in Auschwitz and Birkenau, a second camp just a few miles away. Up to 90% were Jewish. The tour of the Martyrdom Museum in Auschwitz-Birkenau is one of the most sobering experiences and yet it remains a must-see. Camp buildings, barbed wire fences, watchtowers, and the entrance gate inscribed "Arbeit Macht Frei" all remain to bear witness to the atrocities of the holocaust. Students will visit both camps with a guide.
A Night on the Town
Krakow is home to twelve major academic institutions with a total student population of 120,000 and a busy night life focusing on restaurants and bars in cellars near the medieval town square, Rynek Główny. With local CEA staff, students will visit one of the most popular student hang-outs, the Piwnica Pod Baranami, the most famous cabaret club in Poland that has been serving up gourmet food, drinks and entertainment since 1956. The Piwnica hosted the first Polish striptease-- the student from the Academy of Fine Arts spotted her rector in the audience, and with a squeal, ran off the stage! The Piwnica was famous for stunning audiences with its unconventional humor and poetry. Polish Jazz began in the 1950s at the Piwnica; it has hosted performances by the all time greats of Polish Jazz. The 12th annual Polish jazz Festival will take place during the first week of July.
Language Exchange
CEA staff can arrange for students to meet a Polish language exchange partner to practice Polish in a real life context. Most partners are regular Polish university students who are studying English or other languages. Language partners can also help CEA students experience the city and its culture, giving tips on how to get around and where to find the sights and activities of interest. This program is a great way of meeting other young people and enhancing speaking skills.
