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The Second World War in Lublin
After the Second World War broke out and Poland was occupied by the Germans, Lublin was made the regional headquarters for the occupation government. The city became strategically speaking very important on the route between the Eastern Front and the Reich. Since 1938, the Nazis had been considering the idea of creating a "Jewish reservation", i.e., an enormous ghetto, to which millions of European Jews would be sent. After the pact with the Soviets was signed about the division of power in the Polish lands, they decided to create that reservation on the area between the Vistula and the Bug. The "Nisko Plan" as it was called, envisioned the transformation of the Eastern territories in the Lublin district into an area of Jewish settlement.
In September 1939, Adolf Eichmann, who was responsible for the deportations, drafted a plan for the settlement of Jews in occupied Poland. The first transports of Jews from Vienna and Ostrava arrived in the vicinity of Nisko as early as October 1939. This plan turned out to be too difficult to implement, however, and was also opposed by Hans Frank. The German policy of exterminating the Jews, however, was implemented. Poles and Jews were expelled from Lublin's center and their belongings looted, because the area was to become the new German quarter. The synagogues and houses of prayer were shut.
In March 1941, the Germans established a ghetto in Lublin. In October 1941, the Nazis decided to divide the Lublin ghetto into the "A" ghetto and the "B" ghetto (large and small, respectively). Jews who worked in German enterprises, the Judenrat and related institutions could remain in the small ghetto. The population slated for deportation remained in ghetto "A". In late March and early April 1942, the Germans began to liquidate the ghetto. People who were old, sick or attempting to hide were shot on the spot. Two thousand five hundred Jews were killed during this action, including all the children from the orphanage on Grodzka Street, as well as eleven patients in the hospital. About 30,000 Jews were deported to the Bełżec death camp, and 4,000 perished at Majdanek.
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In April 1942, the remaining Jews were sent to the newly created ghetto in Majdanek Tatarski, which was supposed to be a "model ghetto", offering a chance of survival. These propaganda slogans inclined many of the Jews in hiding to go to the ghetto, where death awaited them.
The liquidation action of the Majdan ghetto began on 9 November 1942. Over 2,000 people were killed in mass executions at that time. Those who remained were shot in the Krępiec forest, near Lublin and elsewhere. The last Jews were sent to the Majdanek concentration camp. After the ghetto's population had been removed and the remaining property looted, the ghetto was set on fire. There were also six forced labor camps for Jews operating in the city, as well as the concentration camp Majdanek, which the Germans established on its outskirts.
Lublin was liberated by the Soviet army in July 1944. From July 1944 until January 1945, the Polish Committee for National Liberation (PKWN) was founded - the first seat of the Soviet-controlled Polish government. Immediately after the war, there were still about 4,500 thousand Jews living in Lublin. In 1990, there were just 45.
At present, attempts are being made to revive the Lublin Community under the leadership of Roman Litman. A Polish-Israeli Friendship Society also exists in Lublin, which was founded in 1989 at the initiative of Andrzej Nowodworski. Meetings take place the first Tuesday of the month at 5 p.m. (except during the summer holidays) at the Cultural Center in Lublin (www.tppilublin.of.pl). Since the early 1990's, the Brama Grodzka Center - NN Theater has been involved in preserving Jewish heritage. In 1999, a Center for Jewish History and Culture was established at the Marie Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin.
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