I am spending 3 days in Lublin, Poland. The main reason is that I have been
invited to give a couple of lectures during the summer school of the local
university here, but it also gives me the chance to explore the city where my
father was born and where he lived the first 14 years of his life, until World
War II broke out and his world was destroyed. Before the war, Lublin was one of
Europe’s main centers of Jewish learning, with between 1/3 and half of the
city’s population Jewish, at least 40,000 people. Only a few hundred survived
the Holocaust (my father among them), and what was once the Jewish quarter only
exists in photographs and memories. With the exception of a couple of streets,
it was razed to the ground in 1942-43.
Today, Lublin is an attractive, vibrant city of about 350,000 inhabitants, many
of whom are students since the city is the main center of higher education in
eastern Poland. Here are five images from yesterday’s walks around Lublin.
Lublin Castle. On the right is a grassy area, which used to be Krawiecka Street
(Tailor Street). My father lived in no. 11 on that street:
https://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-vC3znqG/A
A large yeshiva was completed in 1930. The Germans used it for their purposes
during the occupation, the subsequent Communist government turned into part of
the medical university. It was returned to the Jewish community in the early
2000s and is now a hotel catering mainly to religious Jewish visitors to
Lublin, and it also contains a synagogue:
https://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-th7Fnhp/A
The synagogue in the former yeshiva. The Lublin congregation is small, and it
is part of the larger Warsaw congregation, about 2 hours away:
https://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-pDwcwVs/A
The Ukrainian consulate in Lublin, expressing its gratitude. Lublin, beeing in
the east of the country, has taken in a large number of Ukrainian refugees:
https://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-m4j9XDz/A
In the afternoon, I sat down for a pint at one of the many bars on Krakowskie
Przedmiescie Street, and looked at the human traffic passing by:
https://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-CJx93t4/A
And in the evening, on my way back to the hotel, this delightful scene:
https://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-WRH7jZx/A
And presiding over it all is Józef Piłsudski, Poland’s first post-independence
leader (the country was partitioned among Prussia, Austria-Hungary and Russia
in 1795 and regained its independence after World War I in 1918):
https://www.greatpix.eu/All/Picture-A-Day/i-XQptN5x/A
More to come.
Nathan
Nathan Wajsman
Alicante, Spain
http://www.frozenlight.eu <http://www.frozenlight.eu/>
http:// <http://www.greatpix.eu/>www.greatpix.eu
PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
<http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws>Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/
<http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/>
Cycling: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator
<http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/belgiangator>
Слава Україні! Героям слава!
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