Remember Jewish Lublin

Pronunciations: Loob-leen

Lublin is the largest city in Poland east of the Vistula River and is located 161 km south of Warsaw. Jewish life in Lublin dates back to at least the 14th century. In 1453 King Kazimierz Jagiellonczyk granted the Lublin Jews the privilege of free trade, which in turn resulted in dynamic growth of the Jewish population in Lublin by the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. Rabbi Jakub from Trident
settled in Lublin in 1475, indicating that a well-organized kehilla was likely present at the time. In 1518 constrictions were placed on Jewish trade within Lublin. By 1535 Jews were banned from living within the walls of the city. This resulted in dynamic growth of the Jewish quarter (Podzamcze).

In 1518 a yeshiva (Talmudic Academy) was established in town and became well known through Europe. In 1567 the Jewish residents built a brick synagogue on Jateczna Street. A smaller shul was built nearby as well. In the 16th century a large part of Podzamcze was flooded by the Czechowka River. The Jewish quarter expanded to the drained marshy lands around the castle. Jewish houses were also built in the suburb of Kalinowszczyzna, located northeast of the city. Moshe Montalto, a Sephardic physician who settled in Poland in the 17th century, built a synagogue in Lublin where the congregants prayed in the Sephardic rite. See also: Sephardic Jews in Lublin. In the late 15th century the old Jewish cemetery in Lublin was established. The oldest preserved tombstone (matzeva) at the cemetery is that of Rabbi Jakub (Yaakov) Kopelman HaLevi, from 1541. In 1550, the King of Poland approved two Jews, Yosef and Eliezar, to open a printing house in Lublin.

The Council of Four Lands, the central body of Jewish authority in Poland from 1580 to 1764, met frequently in Lublin. The great Maharshal synagogue was established in Lublin in 1567. In 1598, the first blood libel against Jews took place in Lublin. The Royal Tribunal sentenced four Jews to death for murder of a Catholic boy in the town of Losice in Siedlce Gubernia. In 1638, the Kotlarshul synagogue was established by Zvi Doktorowich at 20 Szeroka Street. In 1655, Lublin was burned by the Muscovite-Cossack Army, resulting in the murders of around 2,000 Jews. In 1656 the Swedish Army wreaked havoc on the Jewish community. Constant economic restrictions from the local authorities aimed to prevent the development of Jewish trade. The Lublin kehilla was only
fully restored in the second half of the 18th century. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries Lublin became an important center of Hasidic Judaism in accordance with the teachings of Baal Shem Tov and the preachings of his follower Jacob Icek Horowitz, the Seer from Lublin. At the beginning of the 20th century the richest and most assimilated Jews in Lublin possessed large tenement houses, breweries, mills, tanneries, tobacco plants, and numerous stores in the whole town area. However, the majority of Jews in town were poor, traditionally religious, poorly educated, and somewhat isolated from the Polish culture -- living within only the Jewish quarter of town. In 1828, the new Jewish cemetery was established. In 1859, the first Jewish elementary school opened. In the second half of the 19th, century the Jews from Lublin maintained their own schools, newspapers, social associations, and sports clubs. In 1886 a Jewish hospital was built on Lubartowska Street. In 1916 there were already 15 private Jewish schools. Jews manufactured clothing and food products, had a monopoly on the leather industry, and ran tobacco plants, distilleries, and brickyards. After World War I there were a number of educational facilities in the city, including Hashomir Hatzair, Tarbut Hebrew School, Mizrachi's Yavne School, and Beth Jacob School for Girls. In 1916, a weekly socio-cultural magazine was published in Polish entitled "Mysl Zydowska" (Jewish thought). In 1918, the first issue of the Yiddish "Lubliner Tugblat" (Lublin Journal) was published by editor Shlomo Boruch Nisenbaum.

In 1930, the Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin was opened under the auspices of Rabbi Meir Shapiro. Among the notable musicians of the Lublin district were: Chaim Cymerman, a cantor; Josef Szlomo Glatstein (killed in the Warsaw ghetto); Maksimilian Halperin; Mieceslaw Harris; Teodor Kleiman; Dawid Wolberger, a cantor from Chelm; and Michl Gertl from Hrubieszow. In 1922, Jewish houses of prayer in Lublin were operated by the following individuals: Szmul Ajchenbaum, Abram Cegielman, Noach Ejger, Ajzik Ejger, Szloma Ejgier, Noach Ellenbaum (at Lubartowska 2), Lejzor Erlichman, Berek Feld, Izrael Finkelsztajn, Jankiel Fiszman, Markus Frydman, Szloma Giewer, Daniel Goldbrodt, Wladyslaw Grochowski, Moshe Hausner, R. Lubelski, Majer Iberkleid, Benjamin Ortman, Mendel Rachsztejn, Nusyn Rafalowicz, Berek Rott, Berek Rozencwajg, Szyja Siwerat, Jankiel Yaakov Szuchmacher (at Wieniawa 42), Jankiel Szrojt, Szloma Szyfman (at Wieniawa 54) and Lejb Zajfsztajn. Jews employed by the Lublin community in 1928 included: officials P. Gromb, J. Biderman; purser K. Rozencwajg; gravedigger L. Kronberg; and caretaker F. Klimczak. Jews employed by the Lublin community in 1936 included: caretaker J. Mazur; coachman G. Zyswaser; gravedigger Shmuel Marek; officials P. Krysztal, P. Cwajgman, J. Majzels, S. Wajnbuch, M. Hochlerer, S. Grynsztajn; and pensioners N. Krysztal, J. Kornberg and Z. Kosman.

The Jewish community in Lublin also had nearby Jewish communities, which included, among others: Bystrzyca (5 Jews), Garbow (100-125 Jews), Glusk (400-500 Jews), Konstantynow (1,150 Jews), Naleczow (250-400 Jews), Niemce (125 Jews), Rudnik (unknown number of Jews), Swidnik (10 Jews), Wawolnica (1,000-1,200 Jews) and Weglinek (15 Jews). Most of these Jews were murdered in the Shoah.

GLUSK AND WIENIAWA

A Lublin suburb called Glusk became independent in 1689, and in the 1780s Jews made up about 30% of the entire population of Glusk. In the 19th century, Glusk had a synagogue, a mikveh, a public house of prayer (created in 1822), a ritual slaughterhouse and a cheder. In the mid-18th century, the Jewish population in Glusk numbered 394 people and constituted 56% of all inhabitants. Jews employed by the Glusk Jewish community in 1930 included: Josef Kartofel, rabbi; Jankiel Yaakov Kotlarski, ritual slaughterer; and Gedalia Lewenstajn, synagogue sexton.

Another Lublin suburb that no longer exists, Wieniawa, included 131 Jewish homes and 96 non-Jewish homes during World War I. Wieniawa was famous for its inns and taverns. Where the Kosmos cinema stands today (Stanislawa Leszczynskiego and Dlugosza streets) -- in Lublin proper -- was the site of the market square of Wieniawa. Most of the population was Jewish and the brick built
synagogue stood in the middle of the market square. The building at 50 Leszczynskiego street dates from the first half of the 19th century and originally was the town hall (Magistrate). Between Leszczynskiego and Solidarnosci streets was the Jewish cemetery from the second half of the 18th century until 1940. Wieniawa ceased to exist in 1940 when the population was relocated to the Lublin ghetto (by the castle) and most of the old buildings (mainly wooden) were destroyed by the Germans. This included the synagogue that originated in the beginning of the 19th century, on which the Germans built a stadium, which still exists and is now called the "Stadion KS Lublianka". Tombstones from the Jewish cemetery were used to strengthen the foundations of buildings on Spokojna Street, and a few of the tombstones were recovered during recent renovation. These tombstones have now been relocated in the new Jewish cemetery on Walecznych Street. On the site of the destroyed synagogue a cinema was built in the 1960s, A famous composer and violinist at the end of the 19th century was Henryk Wieniawski, whose family adopted the surname due to their roots in Wieniawa. There is a monument in Lublin dedicated to him, as well as a district named after Henryk Wieniawski.

From the beginning of WWI up to the Nazi invasion, Jews in Lublin faced tremendous anti-Semitism. Jews were assaulted by mobs, Jewish businesses were boycotted, and Jewish property was pillaged by the Cossacks. In 1921, the Jewish population was 37,337, with Jews operating 1,714 workshops and businesses in the city. The Jewish community was supported by 12 synagogues, an array of private prayer houses, a hospital, an orphanage, three cemeteries, a network of schools and the Chachmei yeshiva. Inspired by Lublin's substance, novelist Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote a book called "The Magician of Lublin".

THE HOLOCAUST IN LUBLIN

Prior to WWII, Lublin was the center of religious life for thousands of Jewish families. Students came from all over Europe to study at the yeshiva in the city. In 1931 Lublin was inhabited by 38,937 Jews who constituted 35% of the overall town population. By 1939, the population of Jews in Lublin reached more than 42,000 -- about 1/3 of the total city population. In November 1939, Jews living in the center of the city (including Krakowskie Przedmiescie and its side streets) were forced to relocate to the traditionally Jewish Podzamcze district. Soon, the Jews were beset by a series of repressive measures. A census of Jews was taken, and all of them were obliged to wear a white armband with the Star of David on the right sleeve. Germans move into Jewish houses and subsequently destroy and loot Jewish property. A Labor camp was established at Lipowa 7 in September, 1939.

According to Polish sources, more than 7,000 Jewish prisoners of war -- mostly those who were inhabitants of Eastern Poland and who had served as soldiers with the Polish military -- were transferred by train to the Lublin District from the Stalags in Germany, beginning in December 1939. At this time, several transports of prisoners arrived from Stalag IIB in Hammerstein, Germany. The
prisoners were assigned to work on the Lublin airfield. But they were forced to march on a "death march" in December, 1939 a distance of 130 km. from Lublin to Biala Podlaska. 200 survived. During this same period, an S.S. unit murdered 100 Jewish prisoners near Wlodawa. In January 1940, some 400 POWs were murdered near Parczew in Julipol and in Niedzwiedzice, a village near Lubartow. In February 1940, 1,086 POWs were murdered on a subsequent "death march" to Biala Podlaska. Of the 60,000 Jewish men taken prisoner by the Germans in September, 1939, only a few hundred survived.

Lublin became a regional Nazi headquarters for Operation Reinhardt, the main effort to murder Jews in occupied Poland. Jews were stigmatized with Star of David armbands, a work requirement was imposed, the use of public transportation and public facilities was prohibited, bank accounts were closed, religious practice was forbidden, access to educational institutions was denied, involuntary
monetary and material contributions were demanded and, eventually, Jewish enterprises and real estate were seized. In the beginning of 1940, a Judenrat was created, comprised of 24 members and headed by Henryk Bekker. The Judenrat headquarters was at 11 Grodzka Street. Other members included: Marek Alten, Aron Bach, Aizik Brodt, Aizik Bursztyn, Urysz Cymerman, Dawid Dawidson, Dawid Edelstein, Dawid Frajdenberg, Abraham Goldsobel, Jozef Goldztern, Szlomo Halbersztadt, David Hochgemein, Leon Hufnagel, Aron Jankiel Kantor, Yitzhak Kerszman, Szloma Kerszenblum, Shlomo Kestenberg, Jacob Kelner, Daniel Kupferminc, Aleksander Lewi, Yitzchak Lewinson, Nachman Lerner, Dawid Rechtman, Josef Rotrubin, Dr. Josef Siegfried, M. Sztokfisz, Moritz Szlaf, Szulim Tajkef, R' Zvi Elimelech Talmud, Benzion "Boleslaw" Tenenbaum, Josef Wajselfisz, and Wolf Wiener. The Judenrats in the Lublin district, in general, were not complicit with the Nazis and resisted when possible. In 1940, all Lublin synagogues and houses of prayer for Jews were forcibly closed by the Nazi occupiers.

In March 1941, Ernst Zoerner, the governor of Lublin, announced that "a Jewish residential district" that encompassed the Podzamcze district (to Lubartowska Street) and a section of the Old Town. The ghetto was divided into two sections, the large ghetto where the poorest Jews lived, and the smaller ghetto which housed Lipowa 7 prisoners, Judenrat members, and those who could work. The smaller ghetto was located at Grodzka, Kowalska, and Rybna streets. Construction began on the Majdanek Concentration Camp, the first death camp located in a major city, in Lublin in 1941.

The first major deportation from the ghetto began on March 16-17, 1942. During the month-long deportation operation, approximately 30,000 Jews from the Lublin ghetto were sent to the Belzec Death Camp, while about 1,500 others were shot on the spot. The remaining 4,000 Jews were transferred to a third ghetto, Majdan Tatarski, a Lublin suburb.

The fate of the Majdan Tatarski ghetto was decided on November 9, 1942. Most of its inhabitants were sent to the Majdanek Concentration Camp on foot. After the final liquidation of the Majdan Tatarski Ghetto, it was burnt to the ground. On September 2, 1942, 2,000 Jews were murdered and another 1,800 were murdered in October of 1942. The remaining 200 Jews were sent to the Majdanek Camp. Others in in the Lublin area were taken to the New Cemetery and shot execution style or buried alive.

In June 1942, German Police Battalion 101 was sent back to Poland. Posted to the Lublin district, the battalion arrived during a temporary lull in the mass deportations of Jews to the three Operation Reinhard killing centers of Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. For the next four weeks, members of the battalion were deployed in rounding-up Jews from smaller settlements and concentrating them in larger ghettos and camps, particularly Izbica and Piaski. Beginning in mid-July 1942 with the round-up of Jews in the town of Jozefow near Bilgoraj, members of Police Battalion 101 were utilized for the mass shooting of Jewish civilians in towns throughout the Lublin district. These included, in addition to Jozefow, the cities of Lomazy (August 1942), Miedzyrzec Podlaski (August 1942), Serokomla (September 1942), Kock (September 1942), Parczew (October 1942), Konskowola (October 1942), Miedzyrzec (a second action in October 1942), and Lukow (November 1942).

A vast network of sadistic labor camps was established throughout the Lublin district. Not only were Jewish residents of the district sent to these camps (ultimately, nearly all of the slave laborers at these camps were murdered), but many Jews from outside of Poland were also sent to the district for slave labor. A listing of known deportations to Majdanek is available here. Additionally, in Lublin there was an airfield (called Alter Flugplatz) which, in summer 1941, became a sorting barrack and collections agency for miscellaneous supplies, mostly clothing of the victims. In March 1942, Globocnik took it over. Initially women prisoners from the Lublin Castle and Jewish specialists from the Lublin ghetto were employed there. Three hangers at the airport were used as the main sorting depot for clothing, belongings and valuables taken from the victims of Aktion Reinhard.

"Erntefest", the Operation Harvest Festival, began at dawn on November 3, 1943. "Erntefest" was the code name for the Nazi operation to kill all Jews remaining in the Lublin District of the Generalgouvernement (a territory in the interior of occupied Poland) in the fall of 1943. The timing of the operation was in response to several efforts by surviving Jews to resist the Nazis: including the uprisings at the Sobibor and Treblinka extermination camps, and armed resistance in the Warsaw, Bialystok, and Vilna ghettos. The SS feared additional Jewish-led revolts in the Generalgouvernement. To prevent further resistance, the SS decided to kill most of the remaining Jews, who were employed in forced labor projects and were concentrated in the Trawniki, Poniatowa, and Majdanek concentration camps. Trawniki and Poniatowa were surrounded by S.S. and police units. Jews were then taken out of the camps in groups and shot in nearby pits dug for this purpose. At Majdanek, Jews were first separated from the other prisoners. They were then taken in groups to nearby trenches and shot. Jews from other labor camps in the Lublin area were also taken to Majdanek and shot. Music was played through loudspeakers at both Majdanek and Trawniki to drown out the noise of the mass shooting. The killing operation was completed in a single day at Majdanek and Trawniki. At Poniatowa the shootings took two days. End result: 42,000 Jews killed.

At the beginning of August, 1944, about 300 Jews were living in Lublin, but only 15 were originally from Lublin. The number grew to 3,000 Jews by 1945 as refugees from other places repopulated Lublin.

In neighboring Glusk, which later became a part of the city of Lublin, there were around 400 Jews at the outbreak of the Shoah. The ghetto in Glusk was established in 1941. Apart from inhabitants of the settlement, a a group of 65 Szczecin Jews from Germany were confined there and the total of ghetto inhabitants was around 700 Jews. The first deportation in Glusk took place on October 16, 1942, where the residents were moved to the Piaski Transit Ghetto. From there, they were taken to the gas chambers at the Sobibor Death Camp. In November, 1942, 32 Jewish craftsmen who had been left in the Glusk Ghetto were taken away to the death camp at nearby Majdanek.

PARTIAL LIST OF PERPETRATORS

The Nazis in charge of the massacre of the Jews of Lublin included: Leadership & Main Killers: Ernst Zorner, Odilo Globocnik, Hans Frank, Christian Wirth, Heinrich Himmler, Gustav Hanelt, Friedrich Wilhelm Kruger, Gottlieb Hering, Philipp Freund, Karl Wolff, Hermann Kintrup, Gerret Korsemann, Georg Wippern, Otto Hantke, Walter Liska, Walter Griphan, Anton Thumann, Oswald Pohl, Dr. Karl Putz, Walter Huppenkothen, Johannes Mueller, Georg Michalsen, Jakob Sporrenberg, Hermann Hoefle, Erich Muhsfeldt, Eberhard Schoengarth, Gotthard Schubert, Hermann Worthoff, Konrad Rheindorf, Oskar Dirlewanger, Alfred Langerhaus, Hans Dietrich Grunwald, Ernest Lerch, Jurgen Lassman, Johann Schwarzenbacher, Karl Streibel, Otto Klopmann, Heinz Villain, Alfons Goetzfrid, Josef Pospichil, Werner Wehrheim, Willy Suchanek, Adalbert Benda, Erich Wullbrandt, Hilmar Moser, Hans Wagner, Dietrich Allers, Friedrich Schmidt, and Hermann Dolp; and Less Significant Murderers: Wilhelm Altenloh, Richard Dibus, Wenzel Eehwald (probably Fritz Rehwald), Heinz Errelis, Willi Hausler, Lothar Heimbach, Erich Kalich, Walter Knitzky, Bernhard Lel, Hans Lissy, Hugo Raschendorfer, Hermann Rolfing, Mauritius Schnur, Kuno Schramm, Richard Schuh, Kurt Seidel, Harry Sturm, and Hermann Worthoff. Nazis whose first names are not known include: Calverini (from Italy), Meininger (from Germany), Schuller and Seylitz (Seidlitz?). Jewish collaborators icluded Szama Grajer and Dr. Salomon Bromberg. A full list of Lublin and Majdanek Nazis is available online here.

Nazis at Dorohucza, Majdanek, Lipowa 7, Budzyn, Krasnik, Poniatowa, and Trawniki are listed separately.

AFTER THE WAR IN LUBLIN

In 1945, groups of Holocaust survivors from eastern Europe gathered in Lublin. There were still murders taking place by the local population, with Sobibor survivors Aron Licht, Josef Kopf, and Leon Feldhendler all murdered in the vicinity of Lublin. Most of the Holocaust survivors decide to leave Poland, although in 1947 the Zydowski Komitet Ziomkostwa Lubelskiego (the Jewish Committee of the Lublin Landsmanshaft) did organize a congress of former Lublin citizens.

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee helped the surviving Jews in Poland in their struggle to recover missing members of their family. The Jewish Education Department of the Central Committee of Polish Jews, with Dr. Shlomo Herszenhorn as lead, ran most of the Jewish orphanages and Jewish education programs in post-war Poland. His first children's home for orphans was opened in Lublin in July 1944. The homes provided some Yiddish culture, language and history but were devoid of Zionism, Jewish religion or Jewish history. They followed the pro-Communist Polish curriculum.

Yehuda Weinstock, a native of Szczebreszyn, testified about his experience in Lublin after the war: "In 1944, after leaving the Red Army, I came to Lublin looking for surviving landsleit. On the road from Kovel to Lublin, I did not encounter any Jews. Lublin resembled a camp. Bombs were aimed at the Nazi side. The streets were deserted. I met a few Jews and they told me of the terrible fate of the Jews of Poland. I was invited to Peretz House, where there were several hundred Jews were gathered. All of the couple of hundred Jews began to daven and to celebrate the yom tov. I did not come to pray so I walked around. In room number one, I saw Jews lying on the floor -- a young couple who had spent the whole war hidden by a farmer lay there with injured legs, exhausted, unable to move. There were many such couples. In the second room, I heard Jews davening and wailing. I am not frum, but it affected me. I joined them in Hoshanes. Women and men together were weeping. Tears were shed, and I was so affected, I began to weep too.

I stood there thinking about my parents. If they would still have been alive, and seen me davening and crying, they would have been overjoyed that I had survived the hard battle against fascism. I thought about my beloved wife and my only son, who were murdered. I felt that I would be cursed for the rest of my life. Suddenly, I saw a familiar person who was staring at me. He had been fervently praying and weeping. I could not place him. He could not bare it any longer, and he approached me, and asked, "Are you not Yehuda Weinstock?" And I to him, "Are you not Mendl Moishe Sternfeld?" I received no answer. Our arms reached out and we embraced. Not a word was exchanged, but we covered each other in tears. Our hearts understood that we were brothers in suffering, the suffering of the Jewish people. Moishe Sternfeld was sent back from Russia to the Polish army. The second Shebreshiner I met, Yosef Shpul, was a partisan in the forests and survived in that way."

In 1968, the Communist government of Poland expeled Jewish citizens, and only 25 were able to stay in Lublin. In 1998, the Grodzka Gate -- NN Theatre was founded in Lublin. They are working on a project to identify the 42,000+ Jewish residents of pre-war Lublin, most of whom were murdered.

Please review the site content below. Zachor - We Remember.
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[Surnames] [History] [Wikipedia - Lublin] [Holocaust]
[Grodzka Gate – NN Theatre] [Photos of Unidentified Jews from the City of Lublin]
[Life in the Lublin Ghetto] [The Lublin Ghetto] [Lublin Ghetto Listing]
[Video of the Lublin Ghetto] [Death Incidents Database]
[Books About Lublin District Jewish Communities]
[Jewish Partisans in Lublin District] [Jewish Revolts in Lublin District]
[Ancestry.com List of Prisoners of War in Lublin, 1939-1941]
[Aktion Erntefest in Lublin, Nov. 1943] [Lublin Village Listing]
[Estimated Pre-WWII Jewish Population - Lublin District]
[Deportations of Jews to the Lublin District During the Holocaust]
[Lublin District Jewish Holocaust and History Discussion Forums]
[Lists of Data Relevant to Holocaust Victims & Survivors from Lublin]
[Chachmei Yeshiva] [Majdanek Concentration Camp] [Photos of Majdanek Today]
[Lublin Area Jewish Descendancy Organizations in Israel] [Sephardic Jews of Lublin]
[Resources for Finding Your Jewish Family in the Lublin District]
[Lublin Yizkor Book 1 (Hebrew)] [Lublin Yizkor Book 2 (Hebrew)]
[Kehilalinks Lublin Remembrance Website] [Photos of Lublin Today]
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Lublin Descendant Organizations
Lublin Descendants in Canada
Lublin Descendants in the USA
Lublin Cemetery Plots in the USA
Lublin Immigrants to America
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