A Visit to the Countryside

Village of Krepiec

During the Lubliner Reunion, organizers offered day trips to shetls (Jewish towns and villages before WWII) and historic sites near Lublin. Jon and I toured Krepiec, Zamosc and Belzec, in southeast Poland, near the border of the Ukraine.

The village of Krepiec is about 11 km from Lublin. Quaint cottages line the narrow road. We walked along the rocky path into the woods to reach the almost forgotten memorial in the Krepiec Forest. The site is the mass grave of more than 30,000 men, women and children brought from Majdanek concentration camp and the Jewish ghetto in Lublin, Majdan Tatarski.

Monument at the mass grave in Krepiec Forest

The plaque reads, "In the years 1941-1944, in the Krępiec Forest, the Nazis murdered 30,000 Polish Jews, Russians and other nationals who were brought here from the city of Lublin and the camp of Majdanek." Although the plaque states 30,000 murdered, no one really knows how many were buried or cremated in the mass grave.

Renaissance town of Zamosc

Further east is the beautiful Renaissance town of Zamosc. Built in the 16th century, Zamosc was modeled after Italian trading cities blending Italian and Central European architecture. Today, Zamosc retains its original street layout, buildings and parts of its fortress and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Sephardic Jews from Italy, Spain, Portugal and Turkey settled in Zamosc in the late 1500s. Ashkenazi Jews (from central and eastern Europe) came in the 17th century. The town grew to become an important center for Jewish learning. The population of Zamosc was 40 percent Jewish in 1939.

The recently restored synagogue in Zamosc

During the war, Jews were moved to an open ghetto. Some were able to escape to the Ukraine. By 1941, the ghetto was liquidated with deportations to Auschwitz and Majdenek death camps in Poland and to Belzec a few miles away.

In 2011, the Zamosc synagogue was restored as part of an effort to preserve Jewish heritage in Poland. Since there are no longer Jewish residents in Zamosc, the facility is currently used as a cultural arts center and occasionally holds religious services for Jewish travelers to Belzec death camp and the Ukraine.