1. The stone monument in Castle Square at the bottom of the steps, with a plaque showing the plan of the former Jewish district existing here from the 16th c. Szeroka Street, once leading across the square, was the central communication route of the ‘Jewish town’ lined with townhouses, synagogues, offices and expensive shops. In the 18th c. the house in 28 Szeroka Street was the residence of the Seer of Lublin (Yaakov Yithak Horowitz). The cultural and educational life of the Lublin Jews concentrated in this area, e.g. in Nadstawna Street.
In 1941 the district was turned into a ghetto and completely destroyed in 1943 after the liquidation of the Lublin ghetto.
2. The site of the former Great Synagogue complex (Maharshal-shul) in Tysiąclecia Street, at the foot of the Jewish Tower, is commemorated with a monument and a metal relief depicting the synagogue. In the 16th and 17th c. the buildings housed the first Lublin Yeshiva (Talmudic academy), established by the rabbi Salomon Luria. The synagogue complex was destroyed by the Germans during the liquidation of the ghetto in 1943. 3. The Former Academy of Sages of Lublin (Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin) in 85 Lubartowska Street on the corner of Unicka Street. This formidable edifice, erected in 1930, was financed from contributions of Jewish communities from all over the world. The academy revived the traditions of Talmudic studies which flourished in Lublin in the Old Polish period.
Yeshiva had a vast library with Hebrew publications from the 16th and the 17th c. The best preserved part of the interior is the lecture hall, which once served as a prayer room. After World War II the building was given to the Medical Academy but returned to the Jewish community a few years ago. Presently the Yeshiva is used by members of the Jewish Community in Warsaw – the Branch in Lublin (tel. 81 747 09 92), who plan to open a hotel and a kosher restaurant catering mostly for Jewish tourists visiting Lublin. Inside there is also a remembrance chamber dedicated to the memory of the Lublin Jews (open every day apart from the Sabbath, which begins at nightfall on Friday and lasts until nightfall on Saturday).
4. The Old Jewish Cemetery is located at the junction of Kalinowszczyzna Street and Sienna Street, on a loessial hill that once was a medieval settlement. The 1541 tombstone on the grave of Jakub Kopelman is the oldest Jewish gravestone that has remained in its original place. Many eminent rabbis, academics and Jewish leaders are buried here, including Y. Y. Horowitz, the Seer of Lublin, whose grave is in the form of an ohel – a metal structure built over a stone matzevah. Each preserved tombstone is a unique example of artistic stonework. The place was used for burials till the 19th c.
The Old Jewish Cemetery is a place of religious worship and historic importance. Organised groups of tourists can take a guided tour of the cemetery on permission from the Jewish Community in Warsaw – the Branch in Lublin in 85 Lubartowska Street (tel. 81 747 09 92 or 602 473 118 (Paweł Matraszek)).
5. The New Jewish Cemetery has been located in Walecznych Street, near Unicka Street since 1829. It was destroyed by the Nazis during World War II and partially restored after the war. Damaged matzevos are lined along the fence and in the centre stands a mausoleum of the Frenkl Family with a small synagogue. Inside there is a Remembrance Chamber of the Lublin Jews. There is also a monument commemorating the Holocaust, graves of Jewish soldiers fighting in the Polish Army in 1944-45 and an empty ohel where once the founder of the Yeshiva, Majer Jehuda Szapiro, was buried.
The cemetery is still used for interments by the small Lublin Jewish community. Tourists can visit the place every day except for the Sabbath. The key is available on the ground floor from the caretaker.
6. Chewra Nosim is the only preserved private prayer house in Lublin, named after the Jewish Funeral Society. It is located on the first floor of the townhouse in 10 Lubartowska Street and serves as a prayer room, remembrance chamber and the seat of the Social and Cultural Society of Jews in Lublin. The most important religious festivals, such as the Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah, are held here.
The Chewra Nosim is open to individual tourists on Sundays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Organised groups can visit the prayer house at a more convenient time after contacting curators of the place (Paweł Matraszek, tel. 602 473 118 or Luba Matraszek, tel. 501 836 048).
7. The German concentration camp in Lublin in the district of Majdanek was designed as a source of free labour for the development of the Nazi empire in the East. It was located on the south-east outskirts of the city by the road leading to Zamość and Lviv, and covered an area of 270 ha. The camp functioned from October 1941 to July 1944.
The prisoners were nationals of 26 countries, mostly citizens of Poland (Jews and Poles), the Soviet Union (Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians) and Czechoslovakia (Jews). Out of over 150,000 prisoners 80,000 (including 60,000 Jews) were shot, killed in gas chambers or died due to abhorrent living conditions. The bodies of the victims were cremated at pyres and in the crematorium.
The tragic ordeal of the prisoners came to an end on 23rd July 1944 when the Red Army liberated Lublin. Soon after the barracks were used by the NKVD as a prison for German prisoners of war and arrested members of the Polish Underground State.
The State Museum at Majdanek is open to tourists all year round with the exception of Mondays, religious and public holidays. The permanent historic exhibition and the installation art ‘Shrine’ are available only from spring to the end of October.
Contact:
The State Museum at Majdanek, 67 Droga Męczenników Majdanka, tel. 81 710 28 33
8. The Grodzka Gate (also called The Jewish Gate) located in 21 Grodzka Street is one of the main gates in the defensive city walls surrounding the Old Town. In the past it separated the Jewish and Christian parts of Lublin. Presently the building is the seat of the Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre – the institution that documents and popularises the history of the Lublin Jews. Here you can see a multimedia presentation of the 1939 Jewish district in Lublin and a scale model of the pre-war Old Town and Podzamcze. The place is open to individual tourists from Monday to Friday at 9.30, 11.00, 12.30 and 14.00; organised groups can visit it also on Saturdays and Sundays after prior reservation (tel. 81 532 58 67)
The institution organises numerous prominent events in order to preserve and promote the multicultural heritage of Lublin and the region.
9. The Neo-Gothic Lublin Castle (9 Castle Square) was built in the first half of the 19th c. after the demolition of the ruins of the Renaissance royal castle (only the Romanesque donjon and the Gothic Holy Trinity Royal Chapel remained from the old structures). The new castle served as a prison during the partitions of Poland, the interwar period and under Nazi occupation. The Germans imprisoned here many Jews from the Lublin ghetto, who were later shot in mass executions in Górki Czechowskie. The last mass execution of the Polish and Jewish captives took place at the castle on 22nd July 1944, a few hours before the Soviet and Polish troops liberated Lublin. In the years 1944-54 the NKVD and the Security Service of communist Poland imprisoned many Polish patriots in the castle cells.
Presently the castle is the seat of the Lublin Museum (open every day except for Mondays, tel. 81 532 50 01).
10. The Former Jewish Hospital in 81 Lubartowska Street is now a gynaecological clinic. The hospital was well-known for eminent Jewish doctors who worked there, such as Beniamin Tec, Marek Arnsztajn, Jakub Cynberg, and Henryk Mandelbaum. During the war the Nazis took away all medical equipment, liquidated the hospital and murdered the patients and most of the staff.
11. The Former I.L. Peretz’s Centre of Jewish Culture from 1936, located at the junction of Czwartek Street and Szkolna Street, used to belong to the left-wing Jewish Workers’ Association ‘Bund’. Nowadays it is the seat of the National Health Fund.
12. The Monument to the Victims of the Lublin Ghetto was placed in 1962 between Lubartowska Street and Świętoduska Street. Investment plans connected with building the ‘Alchemia’ complex on this site required the removal of the monument, so currently it stands on the corner of Niecała Street and Radziwiłłowska Street. The shape of the monument resembles a great imposing matzevah with an inscription by the poet Yitzhak Katzenelson: “In each handful of ashes I seek my loved ones”
13. The Building of the Central Jewish Committee in Poland and the Voivodship Committee of Jews in Lublin on the corner of Rybna Street and Noworybna Street in the Old Town. Both committees functioned in 1945-49 and wanted to reactivate the Jewish community in the independent post-war Poland. However, many Jews who survived the Holocaust did not want to reveal their identity for fear of persecution, some of them remained in hiding outside the city or immigrated to the Soviet Union. The Committee set up a Jewish school, published a newspaper and collected information about the survivors.
In 1948 the Jewish population in Lublin numbered ca. 500 people. The last wave of mass emigration took place in 1968 after a nation-wide anti-Semitic campaign. Presently there is just a small Jewish community in the city of Lublin.
14. The Former Orphanage for the Jewish Children (the ‘Shelter’) is situated in 11 Grodzka Street by Po Farze Square in the Old Town. It functioned as an orphanage and a nursing home for the elderly and the disabled. The offices of the Jewish Religious Community were located there as well. Presently the building houses a Youth Culture Centre.
On 24th March 1942 all the orphans, elderly patients and the personnel were executed by the Nazis.