The cemetery covers 172.5 acres and contains the graves of 9,387 people, most of who died during the D-Day landings, as well as various memorials to 1557 people missing in action. It’s a somber and reflective place, somewhere you need to pause and think.
This year will be 80 years since the D-Day landing.
Where do you start with somebody like General Gavin? He did som much, known as the “Jumping General” due to his habit of jumping with his paratroopers, in particular he jumped with the 82nd Airborne Division on June 6, 1944 (D-Day), a division he commanded just 2 months later. In particular, they secured the area around Sainte-Mère-Église near Utah Beach.
He then went on to serve at Market Garden and Battle of the Bulge. He bio is fascinating, and is worth reading.
This photo is taking at the D-Day landing site, just outside Sainte-Mère-Église.
In my past post, I showed pictures of Schindler’s factory. Schindler managed to protect many Jewish people during the Nazi occupation in Krakow. Today’s photo is about some Jewish people who did not survive. It says:
“The place of reflection on the martyr’s death of 65,000 Polish citizens of Jewish origin from Cracow and surroundings who were killed by the Nazis during World War II”
Sobering. If you want to visit it, it is in Szeroka Street – at the bottom of the small square in the Jewish quarter.
If you have read the book “Schindler’s Jews” or seen the movie “Schindler’s List” directed by Stephen Spielberg, you would have heard of Schindler’s factory. Schindler managed to save many Jewish people towards the end of world war 2 by having then declared as essential workers in his factory – even though the factory was, for practical purposes, producing very little.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when visiting Schindler’s factory, but while it was a history of the factory and of Schindler’s work it was far more than that. It gave an introspective history of Krakow in World War 2, and especially of the Jewish people that were confined to the ghetto during the Nazi occupation of Poland. An enlightening and sobering visit.
We only visited the factory on our second visit to Krakow, but if you are in the city I would highly recommend that you take a visit to the factory to learn move of its history.
The windows are filled with portraits of survivors.
The main factory gates
Leave a Comment