Where They Lived

Rynek 14 in Old Town

My grandmother lived with her parents at Rynek 14 in the center of Lublin's Old Town, before leaving for Antwerp in 1921. Jon and I toured the area on the first day of the reunion and easily found it. The building goes back to 1471 and its history is documented on the Grodzka Gate website. 

I wondered how my Jewish family could live on the Old Town side of Grodzka (Jewish Gate) and not in the Jewish District and later learned it was common for Jews to live in Old Town until the German Occupation of Lublin in 1939.

Number 11 is on the second floor to the right

The building at Rynek 14 is made up of two parts with different facades on the outside. A gift shop is on the ground floor on the right and a cafe occupies the ground floor on the left.When we entered the arched doorway from the street, I saw a courtyard lined with apartments. I didn't know which apartment was where my family lived.

At the door of Number 11

When I returned a few days later with Monika Malec, from Polski Radio, she informed me the address on my document included "m. 11," and in Polish that means number 11. As we climbed the stairs and found number 11, I tried to imagine what the inside of the apartment looked like. No, I didn't knock on the door!

Grodzka 11

My grandfather's last known legal address in Lublin was Grodzka 11, also in Old Town. It operated as a Jewish home for orphans and the elderly from the late 1800s until 1942. My document didn't include the dates he lived there, but show his mother, Rechla, was living in Wieniawa, a village close to Lublin, around that time. His father, Dawid, was deceased. Perhaps he lived there to be close to my grandmother. The historic building is beautifully renovated and is now a youth cultural center.