Peter Michalik - Draft paper for European City seminars: Ethnicity in the City (Ostrava - Krakow)

My project, as a part of the European City seminar: Ethnicity in the City project, covers one specific area of a possible research: the metamorphoses of a formerly Jewish Krakowian district. Kazimierz, once a separated city, used to be the place of residence of the Jewish community in Krakow for centuries. Deep changes, following the deportations during the Second World War, transformed the character of the place to a high degree. Nowadays, only fragments of the Jewish community remained in Kazimierz, which means, that the cultural and ethnical group, that was shaping the district for a long time, is missing. The district became a part of the must – see Krakowian touristic routes, a place where masses of visitors spend their money and to whom the character of the place is being adapted to a certain degree. On the other hand, Kazimierz is an importan place of European cultural and historical memory. The Old synagoge and Jewish cemetery are sites visited by pilgrims from all aroud the world. This ambivalent character of present Kazimierz is a factor, that falls into my field of research, covering both the metamorphoses of the urban reality and the ethnical relevancy of the studied area. The core of my research is the way, how the persisting communities are reflecting these ambiguities cinsidering their personal relationship between memory and the urban space.