Jewish residents of Krakow say they still feel safe after mass shooting

Six people died and 15 were wounded in a mass shooting at Krakow's Old Town Main Square on Saturday. Despite the violence, members of the city's Jewish community stated that they do not believe the attack indicates a growing threat of antisemitism in Poland. Authorities opened a terrorism investigation after learning the suspect held extreme nationalist views, though no affiliation with extremist groups has been found as of Sunday.

Lucy Les, who has owned a Jewish bookstore in the Kazimierz Quarter since 1991, expressed shock at the event but dismissed it as a trend. She noted that Poland remains a generally safe country where she has lived for decades. Les mentioned that her initial worry was that the shooter might be Ukrainian, which could have suggested an ideological motive. Upon learning he was Polish, she described him as simply a crazy local resident.

The Jewish population in Poland is estimated at 10,000, down from more than three million before the Holocaust. While antisemitic incidents have increased since the October 2023 Hamas attack, they remain less frequent in scale than in many Western European nations. Strict immigration policies have kept the growth of pro-Palestinian populations low, and Holocaust awareness remains a central part of Polish cultural policy.

Visitors to the Kazimierz Quarter on a cold, sunny Sunday continued to tour historic sites such as the Remuh Synagogue. Some speculated that the closure of the Main Square pushed more tourists into the Jewish Quarter. At Felafel Shelanu, a kosher restaurant, several Israelis living in the area downplayed the severity of the attack. Gun violence is considered rare in the country, making the event an outlier rather than a pattern.

Yarin, an Israeli man in his mid-20s who moved to nearby Katowice two months ago, was standing about 300 to 400 meters from the shooting location when it began. He and a companion ran to a nearby restaurant and hid for more than two hours. Yarin described the attack as scary but manageable, noting that most people he spoke with view the shooting as a one-time event.

Oded, a Jerusalem resident whose wife Hanna is studying medicine in Katowice, characterized the incident as something that happens once in 40 years. Hanna, who spends the school year in Poland while her family stays in Israel, said the people there are nice, though she misses home. Local guide Jakub Janeczko, who was in the square during the shooting, hid with tourists in a nearby building. After recounting the chaos, he returned to his historical tour, stating that life goes on.

The area where the suspect was apprehended remained blocked off on Sunday with police tape. Many cafes and shops in the Main Square stayed closed under tight police security. The city appeared to be recovering from the emotional shock of the surprise attack, with daily activities resuming in the surrounding neighborhoods.