Krakow [1]

Arrived here safely after a pleasant train ride down. Before boarding the train we heard from Jerzy Halberstadt, the director of the to be built Museum of Polish Jewish History. He spoke very powerfully about how the museum might serve the purpose of recording history and the challenges it faces in speaking to the Polish Catholic, Israeli teenager, American Jews, Japanese tourist, and everyone else.

The design is powerful and the way in which they recognize that their job is not to tell the story of the Holocaust but to send the visitor out -- prepared with the right context -- to Auschwitz, Majdanek, and all the other terrible places associated with this history.

Off to meet with Professors Annamaria Orla-Bukovska and Jolanta Aambrosewicz-jacobs who teach at the Jagellonian University. Jolanta is also a consultant to the Auschwitz museum. They are bringing 4 Polish students from the Jagellonian who study the Holocaust.

Should be a good evening on which to build after our conversations of the previous few days.