Tour Old Town in Lublin

Lublin's Old Town is a popular tourist attraction where a number of reunion activities wer held. We enjoyed meals at the cafes lining the streets. Jon found an ice cream store and I liked visiting the shops and galleries.

Most of Lublin's medieval Old Town survived the Second World War. Some apartment buildings in the center, known as Market Square (Rynek), were damaged or destroyed and rebuilt. By the time the troupe from NN Theater chose to make their home in the Grodzka Gate passageway in the 1990s, Old Town was in disrepair from years of neglect. A turning point of the reconstruction was in 1994, when the City of Lublin provided funds to help renovate and protect Grodzka Gate and the building at Grodzka 21. This led to the revitalization of the entire area. 

Grodzka Gate (Jewish Gate) used to separate the Jewish quarter from Old Town

Cobblestoned Grodzka Street in Old Town

Kraków Gate is one of the two original city entrances

Popular Irish Pub, U Szewca, on Grodzka Street

Restaurant Sielsko Anielsko in Market Square (Rynek) in Old Town

Lunch with our friend, Ernestine, from the UK

Herring and beets!

The Knonpica Family Tenement House - Rynek 12

Ceska Pivnica, Grodzka Street

Another view of Grodzka Street to the Trinity Tower

I fully expected to see a horse and cart in Old Town!

Market Square, Rynek 14

Ruins of St. Michael Archangel, the city's oldest church

Welcome to Lublin!

They came from Israel, United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, Denmark, Belgium, France and beyond. More than 230 former Jewish residents and descendants of Lublin attended the first reunion organized by Grodzka Gate Theater NN and Rootka Tours as part of Lublin's celebration of their 700th anniversary. Two sisters, born in Lublin, came with thirty-five family members. I met one woman who survived the war by posing as a Polish girl. The daughter of a Holocaust survivor came. She promised her mother she would write a book about her life in Lublin. Many had parents and grandparents who left Lublin before the war, like me. We came to learn about our families and honor the memory of those murdered during the Holocaust.

The Royal Castle of Lublin

The first evening, we eagerly awaited the opening ceremony at the Lublin Castle, now an art museum. We were welcomed by Tomasz Pietrasiewicz, the founder and director of Grodzka Gate Theater NN, a Lublin-based organization dedicated to uncovering the history of Lublin’s Jewish past. He is often asked, “Why do you do this? After all you are Poles and the Jewish town is not your history?”

Tomasz explained, “This is our common Polish-Jewish history. To remember the murdered Jews you do not have to be Jewish. To remember the murdered Poles you do not have to be Polish. Our contemporary world needs more empathy, compassion and the ability to understand others. In Lublin, such an understanding especially embraces the memory of its Jewish inhabitants murdered during the Holocaust.”

Over the years, Tomasz has received awards of distinction for his work including honorary membership to the Polish Society of the Righteous Among the Nations and the Irena Sendler Award for preserving Jewish heritage and Jewish culture in Poland.

Tomasz expressed his appreciation for coming despite our doubts or possible feelings of anger and sadness. He encouraged us to learn how our families lived, not only how they died.

As the first day of the Lubliners Reunion came to a close, I realized there was a great deal more to learn about the home of my grandparents.

First Paris

When planning our trip to Lublin, I thought it was also a wonderful opportunity to see Paris. Although Paris and Lublin are 1,000 miles apart, it's just a two hour flight to Warsaw. Now, we are talking dream trips! 

View from the terrace of Galeries Lafayette

What can I say about Paris that hasn't been said before? I can think of only one thing, "I was there." I was in love with Paris before I arrived. Now, I am even more so.

It's hard to describe how I felt when I first saw the Eiffel Tower, the Palais Garnier Opera House, the Louvre, the Seine. It really was a dream come true. Although Jon and I endured a long overnight flight from the U.S., we started our first adventure soon after arriving. We walked to Galeries Lafayette department store and up to the terrace so we could see our first glimpse of the city! 

During our six days in Paris, we visited the Musée d'Orsay, a former rail station on the left bank of the Seine. The art and the transformation are breathtaking. We loved our guided tour of the Louvre. Magnifique. The Louvre is a marvel should be listed as one of the wonders of the modern world. And yes, we saw the Mona Lisa. 

Monet's garden

One of the many highlights of our stay was an afternoon trip to Giverny, France, a village in Normandy, to visit Monet's home and gardens. I could see the water lilies in his paintings. Our driver took the scenic route through the picturesque countryside so we could see the medieval town of Le Petit Andely, Richard the Lionheart's castle ruin Chateau Gaillard and Chateau La Roche Guyon, Rommel's headquarters during WWII.

On our way to dinner in the 17th. 

We dined at outdoor cafes and Jon fell in love with the pots de creme. Each meal was divine, including lunch on the second floor of the Eiffel Tower and the lovely dinner with cousins, Richard and Patti Sigman, who have been living in Paris for more than 25 years. We were having such a good time, I forgot to take a photo, except this one of Patti and Jon walking to the cafe in the 17th arrondissement. 

As we said au revoir to Paris, more was awaiting for us in Poland. We just didn't know what. 

Grodzka Gate Theater NN

Grodzka Gate Theater NN has worked for more than 25 years to uncover the memory of Lublin’s Jewish victims of the Holocaust. This was not their original plan, however. When they set out to restore a building to create a theater in the old ruins of a city gate, they discovered more about its past.

Grodzka Gate

Grodzka Gate, also known as the Jewish Gate, used to be a passage from the Christian to the Jewish part of the city. In the early 1990s theater founders did not know the history of Jews in Lublin. They did not know the enormous empty space on one side of the Gate was the Jewish Quarter –  the parking lot, grassy areas and new roads used to be houses, synagogues and streets. They did not know 43,000 Jews, a third of the city’s residents, were murdered during the Holocaust. 

After the fall of communism in Poland in 1989, Lublin, along with other Polish cities, started to face their forgotten past. Today, the 30+ members of Grodzka Gate's team extensively researches and archives information about people and places in pre-war Lublin which led to the Lublin-Antwerp project. In addition, it serves as a cultural arts center dedicated to share the history of Lublin's Jews.

Former Jewish District

Jackie shared a link to information about a summer meeting hosted by Grodzka Gate Theater NN. The gathering was to take place in Lublin as part of the city’s 700th anniversary celebration with the hope of bringing together descendants of Lublin’s Jewish residents.

The reunion program was impressive. Five days of activities ranging from walking tours of Old Town to day trips to shtetels, the Renaissance city of Zamosc and Belzec death camp. There were concerts, films, scholars discussing Jewish studies in Lublin, genealogists and families sharing their stories. 

After Jon said we ought to go. I started making plans. 

It Started with a Facebook Message

I never thought about visiting Poland. Paris, yes, but not Poland. I didn’t know anything about Poland except my maternal grandparents immigrated from Lublin, Poland in the early 1920s. Since they passed away before I was born, I knew little about their life there. That was about to change.

In November 2016 I received this Facebook message.

“Dear Pola, My name is Jackie Schwarz and I live in Antwerp. I am a researcher and am busy with a project between Jewish Lublin Families that passed through Antwerp. I have a Krimholc family and looking up on YVS found testimony left by Mary Zenitsky. I wanted to add info I have in case there is a family tree. I have a few photos that I have taken in the archives. I am supposing that you are her daughter, but may be wrong, if so sorry for the inconvenience. Kind regards Jackie Schwarz”

What did she know? I responded to Jackie to please forward information to me and my brother via email.

Soon after, I received this photo of my grandmother. It was her Antwerp ID photo taken in 1922. Jackie and a Lublin based organization, Grodzka Gate Theater NN were hoping to identify Jewish individuals born in Lublin who passed through Antwep before 1930 and lived there long enough to register with the city.

My grandmother's given name is Pola. Pesa is her Yiddish name. Then I received more photos of other relatives living in Antwerp.

Sura Matel, my great grandmother

Chaim Krymholz, my great uncle

Rachel Krymholz, nee Blat, Chaim's wife

The records Jackie later forwarded showed my grandfather, Szol, arrived in Antwerp in 1920, leaving Pola and their two young children, Ita (Yetta) and David in Lublin. Szol left Antwerp shortly after to sail to the United States. Pola and her children, her parents, Sura and Abraham, and her brother Chaim and his wife Rachel, arrived in Antwerp in 1921. The following year, Pola and her children sailed on the Minnedosa from Antwerp, arriving in Quebec, Canada on July 2, 1922 to join my grandfather in Kansas City leaving her parents and nine siblings behind in Europe.