מסע לפולין Day 3: Lublin (לובלין)
We began the third day of our Poland Pilgrimage (מסע) in the old town of Lublin. We walked through the beautiful city looking for signs of Jewish life, Christian life, and anything we found weird or interesting. Seeing as the old town of Lublin was full of Jewish life before the Shoah, I expected to see a lot more remnants than actually existed. It is no secret that the area is now extremely Christian (excluding the obvious LARGE church that can be seen throughout the whole place). The city itself is beautiful and full of color, even in the cold rain. The castle overlooking the space is also beautifully built and doesn’t feel too overbearing to see. 
After walking around the city and enjoying ourselves in learning, we headed to a nearby hotel that was once a large Yeshiva. Yeshivat Chachamei Lublin was once a grand Yeshiva that introduced many new ideas, one of which still exists today. This Yeshiva was founded by Rabbi Me’ir Shapiro (מאיר שפירה). When the school was inaugurated, Shapiro invited many non-Jews to come and see this great place that he had built and to invite them to see what the Jews could be capable of, and what they could bring to the society. Unlike many Yeshivas at the time, Yeshivat Chachamei Lublin was focused on Jewish studies AND interpersonal relations. This was quite new, and made the students of this Yeshiva to be great scholars in various subjects. The Yeshiva was elite, as well. Students were required to memorize 200 pages of Talmud (front and back) in order to be accepted. To go along with this elite mindset, Shapiro introduced the idea of a Daf Yomi (דף יומי). The Daf Yomi is a when one page of Talmud is studied each day. The idea of studying one page of Talmud daily (front and back) is to bring the Messiah and to bring the Jewish people together all over the world. Everyone that takes part in this practice starts on the same page and reads one page in order every single day. The entire cycle takes about seven and a half years, and is then repeated. This keeps all of the Jewish people united and encourages Jewish learning in everyone. 
We ended our day in Lublin at the Nazi death camp Maidanek. I’m not really sure how to put into words what I saw here. My mind and body were quite numb (admittedly my body was more numb from cold and my mind from the site). Maidanek was different from other Nazi death camps during the Holocaust. It was originally used as a POW concentration camp for non-Jews of different ethnicities. Once the war got worse, Jews started being taken there to work. After some time of it being a concentration camp, Maidanek was transformed into a death camp. In order to give us some hint of an understanding of what Jews went through when arriving at Maidanek, Ariella made our first stop inside the camp the gas chambers. We then moved on to walking through the various buildings along the main road. Those buildings were mainly used to house the belongings of those who passed through Maidanek. For example, one of the buildings housed over 10,000 individual shoes that belonged to the victims that came through the camp. I think that the hardest thing for me to grasp was the fact that this was a reality. Those shoes belonged to real living people at one point. To me, the whole camp just looked like a museum, not the real actual camp. I felt like I was walking in a bubble of sorts, seeing but not really seeing everything. If I was an artist in any way, I could easily draw you a picture of every single thing I saw, but then I was walking without being able to focus or see. Throughout our tour, Ariella read us passages from a story a survivor of Maidanek had written. This to me didn’t make the experience any more real. It was hard for me to believe that this was a true story. We continued through the camp hearing stories and seeing a horrible face of destruction of our people. At the very end of the camp, before we saw the crematorium, we passed a statue. This statue was built by Jewish prisoners and was a column with eagles on the top. Each day, the Jews were forced to pass this statue and bow down to it. In order to help them continue, the builders took some ash of those who were killed and placed them in the bottom of the statue without the Germans knowing. This way, when they were forced to bow down to the German symbol, they knew they were bowing down toward their people, and gave them a hope and motivation to survive in honor of the people that perished. At the very back of the camp sits the camp crematorium. In this building thousands of people, Jews and non-Jews, were cremated. The building sickened me. It was the first time during our time in the camp that I felt anything other than numbness. I felt physically sick and nauseous. The worst part to me, the sickest thing I could have ever imagined, was the fact that there was a bath tub in a small room off of the room with the burners. In this room, Nazi officers would take a bath next too burning bodies just to get the hot water. It was just ridiculous to me. The ending of our day was the hardest for me. We finished at the memorial that the Russians built at the very end of Maidanek. This memorial consists of the ashes of thousands of people and a little bit of dirt. This pile…. really can’t be put into words, I don’t think. The enormity of it and the sickness that accompanies it is just too much. I hadn’t had any emotion throughout the camp until that memorial. Right before our (beautifully done, thank you everyone that participated) ceremony, the dam broke. I hadn’t made any connection that it really was real until that moment and that was it. It doesn’t help that if needed, Maidanek could be up and running as a fully functional death/concentration camp within 24 hours. All in all, I’m very grateful that I had this opportunity to see evidence of all that I’ve been learning for years.
What was the most interesting part about the old town of Lublin to you?
Would you ever consider taking up Daf Yomi? Why or why not?
What did you feel during Maidanek? Are you glad you had the opportunity to see?
What struck me most about the old city of Lublin was its beauty. I experienced such a flood of emotions every day in Poland, but what stuck out to me, was that everywhere we went, I thought that in a way, it was beautiful. To come to a place that was the site of so many horrors, only to be overcome by the beauty of the landscapes and cities, was a very interesting experience. I felt much the same way at Maidanek. It was horrible for me emotionally while we were there, but the stark beauty of the large stone monument placed by the Soviets at one end, and the pile of ashes that served as a memorial on the other seemed to frame the camp in something more than just sadness. While the memorials did represent the sadness and pain of history, to me, they were gorgeous representations of the human soul. That being said, during our ceremony, to create music and to sing our songs felt like the most important piece of art I had created. A large part of my experience in Poland was seeing the unique and beautiful manifestations of the human soul in the face of suffering.
ReplyDeleteJust like Jacob I was astounded by the beauty of Lublin. I loved the layout of the town and the cobblestone roads. The Sprinkle of Jewish tradition and symbols throughout Lublin such as menorahs or signs in Hebrew was so cool to see. As for Majdanek it was extremely difficult for me. I could not at all comprehend the suffering that those who were sent to Majdanek had to endure. It was so surreal being inside of the gas chambers and through out the entire time we were there I had such trouble breathing. The pile of ashes at the end was so unimaginable. To think of the countless people whose lives would not get to continue because of their religion is so sickening.
ReplyDeleteLublin had a sense of culture that could not be found in Israel or America. With the pastel colors on the buildings and looking into the hint of Jewish life is something I didn't think I could ever get a chance to see. I plan on doing the Daf Yomi, mainly because I want to be able to converse with all different types of Jewish people and also just get a better understanding of what my life (Judaism plays a very large role, it is more than a religion to me). Majdanek was very unreal. I think the most unrealness was a bath tub that would be warmed by burning murdered bodies. To many people death is very hard to deal with, especially right in front of the commanders, it is disturbing how normal it became.
ReplyDeleteLublin had a sense of culture that could not be found in Israel or America. With the pastel colors on the buildings and looking into the hint of Jewish life is something I didn't think I could ever get a chance to see. I plan on doing the Daf Yomi, mainly because I want to be able to converse with all different types of Jewish people and also just get a better understanding of what my life (Judaism plays a very large role, it is more than a religion to me). Majdanek was very unreal. I think the most unrealness was a bath tub that would be warmed by burning murdered bodies. To many people death is very hard to deal with, especially right in front of the commanders, it is disturbing how normal it became.
ReplyDeleteI thought that it was interesting that the entire Jewish quarter was gone except for the lamp. I especially think this is interesting because since the only remenant is a street lamp, most Poloks who walk by it probably don't even know what it represents or that it represents anything at all. I would never consider taking up Daf Yomi. This is because I would not have the patience or persistence to study a page of talmud each day and it would not strengthen my connection to Judaism or Israel at all. I felt a lot of emotions at Mydenik that are still difficult to describe and distinguish. I am very glad that I got the opportunity to see it and I think it is important that people continue to visit. Because the camp wasn't really destroyed and looked like it was still so pristine, it instilled a kind of fear. This is important because it is just one more thing that drives us to make sure that something like that doesn't happen again.
ReplyDeleteLublin, today is so full of modern culture, including restaurants and shops, but if you look closer, so much more can be seen. It has a strong religious presence and has so much history in it. The most interesting part of the Old City, Lublin was the lamp light that always had its light on. It was a memorial for the Jews of Lublin that were murdered or exiled during the Holocaust. I found this to be a really meaningful monument. I would definitely consider starting Daf Yomi, but I don't think I could have myself start in the middle. I would have to start in the beginning of a cycle. Visiting Maidanek was probably the most memorable site on the Poland trip. In contrast to how Rachael felt, I felt that out of all of the sites connected to the Holocaust, Maidanek was the most real. It is terrifying that it could be up in running in only a few days. This and the fact that there wasn't any part of the camp destroyed, made it seem more real. At Maidenek, I was disturbed and nauseated by was I saw and learned about. Throughout our tour, it was difficult to keep my head on straight and all of the disturbing information in order.
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting part of Old Town proper was the conglomeration of Jewish and Christian culture within the city walls. We tend to think of Jewish communities as separate kehillot kiddoshot, but it is clear that when there was still a large Jewish presence in Lublin, Jews and Christians coexisted with relative ease. There are permanent Jewish reminders etched in stone there, and even Jewish establishments such as the theater, all existing without (large) protest.
ReplyDeleteWhile I think that Jewish philosophy is incredibly important, I'm much more interested in studying pure theology and philosophy of divinity rather than the broader subjects in the Talmud. As such, while I'm sure the Daf Yomi is extremely valuable, I don't know if it would speak to me.
The bareness of Majdanek was staggering, but I think the largest emotion I felt was surprise, at the houses of people living right there today. In a way I think of it as a positive thing, understanding that despite all the pain that everyone who were in that camp went through, life must go on. It would be nice to have a totalitarian monument, but it's nicer still that where once there was a symbol of death, there is now life.
-Noah Arnold
Lublin was special to me because it seemed like such a symbol of happiness and life and beauty. I was so beautifully constructed and i loved getting time to walk around and explore it individually. It was nice to visit a place where Jews were integrated into society during this time with people of other religions.
ReplyDeleteI would not study day yomi for a few reasons. The most important reason is that i know i would never actually get around to it, being that I'm always "too busy" or "too tired,", but also because as a reform jew, I'm much more inclined to practice cultural and spiritual judaism rather than textual and religious judaism.
Inexplicably so, the most frightening part of Majdanek was walking into the shower house and seeing the shower heads above me. Even though I was in the part of the shower house in which water came out (not even the part that the gas came out of), I was so horrified that every single part of this bath house was preserved, even the part that was not intended to kill just yet. The biggest emotion i felt in Majdanek was pure anxiety and fear. The incredible preservation of the camp allowed me to feel as connected and as much a part of this tragedy as I know I ever will feel. I will never be able to understand how my people felt going through this, but even just seeing all of the different institutions of the death camp was enough to really affect me.
Lublin was a very sad town for me. Even though it was very beautiful, it was sad how the entire Jewish section was gone. The only thing left was a lamppost which was always left on in memorial of what was lost.
ReplyDeleteI personally would not do the Daf Yomi. I just don't feel like it would connect with me as much as it should. While there is a chance I would read it because I like the idea of sweeping questions, I would not follow it as it is meant to be followed.
There was so much emotion going on in Majdanek that it is very hard to look back and pick a specific memory to point out. One memory which I can think of is just the awe of how well preserved the camp was. In Birkenau we were not able to go into any of the sleeping "quarters" because they were all under renovation or unsafe to enter into. I personally believe that it is important to visit the camps, and Majdanek because of the ash pile at the end. When we first saw it, the first thing that came into my head was "a cremated body leaves about a cup of ash" (something I learned from tv), and seeing what was probable a 40 foot tall 30 foot diameter pile of ash gave me a real idea of the people killed here.
I really liked being able to explore Lublin. It was a really cool part of the city, and seeng all the different culture was interesting. There were both Jewish and Christian artwork and expression, and that really spoke to me to see that Judiasm is still shown and respected there. I wouldn't participate in the Daf Yomi. I don't think it would make myself feel any more Jewish, and I personally find it unnecessary. I'm sure there are people who would and have gained from it, but I know it's something I wouldn't. My most personal memory from Majdanek was the ceremony at the end. It didn't really hit me that we were actually in a death camp and it was all real until we started the tekes. It was so hard to look at the pile of ash and think that those were Jews, and they were our people.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed seeing the old town of Lublin because the city was really cool from an aesthetic standpoint but also it was kind of like walking through history (not morbid) which i thought was swell. As someone not particularly religious I don't think I'd pick up the daf yomi, nothing against it... but I don't think it'd interest me much. I think it was a good opportunity to go to Maidenek because I didn't know that much about it prior and I learned a lot by going there. It might not have been a fun or easy trip but I definitely think it was worthwhile.
ReplyDeleteI thought that being able to explore the Old City of Lublin was a really interesting experience because we all knew that there used to be many Jews living there but it is more difficult to see proof of Jewish culture today. I really enjoyed the "scavenger hunt" where we looked for evidence of Jewish and Christian life/culture throughout the city. I personally wouldn't consider doing Daf Yomi because I haven't done it in the past, I don't feel obligated to do it, and I don't think that it will make me feel more Jewish. I am very glad that I had the eye-opening, sad, and difficult opportunity to tour the Majdanek Death Camp because I got to see living proof of what I have been learning about over the years. I felt very sad during our entire tour and the most meaningful things to me were the pile of shoes, the crematorium, and the memorial that was made by the Russian liberators.
ReplyDeleteI think the most interesting part of the Old City of Lublin was the lamp. That lamp symbolizes all the jewish life had once been in that city. The town of Lublin keeps the street light on at all times so represent the thriving jewish life. I think in the future I would consider taking up Daf Yomi because it allows you to learn a little more each and everyday which seems really cool to me. During our visit to Maidanek I felt like my stomach was hollow. I had this feeling inside me like right at this moment I am 6 million atoms short in my body. I felt lost in my own footsteps like I didn't want to leave. To me it is so off and doesn't seem fair how me and my group got to leave a place that thousands of our very own ancestors never did get to leave. Its heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteIn a sad way, the most interesting part of old town Lublin was how the only remaining part of the Jewish town was the lamp post. It is morbidly fascinating how an entire way of life that existed can be reduced to a single relic.
ReplyDeleteI think that the Daf Yomi is a wonderful tradition and way to learn, and I would definitely consider taking it up, just not in my junior year of high school. I don't feel I have the time to respectfully study a page each day.
I am glad I had the opportunity to visit Maidanek because I feel it prepared me for the other sites, namely Auschwitz, where we would go later in the week. Although Maidanek was extremely hard for me, I am glad I got to experience it so that I could get even a glimpse of what horrors occurred there. I think that to remember, and to pass on, one has to see. As hard as seeing may be, it is important to me.
The most interesting part of Lublin was probaly the scavenger hunt. To see the remains of all the Jewish culture everywhere made me happy in a way because it shows that Jewish life is still prevailing and is still strong as ever. I would consider doing daf yomi because I feel it is such a great way of learning our Talmud and the first step to learning more about Judaism. I really liked having the experience of maidanek because it was so impactful and really made me relize the actual enormity of the holocaust. What impacted me the most was the trenches to think that 18,000 could end in a day is horrible. In the end I think it changed me as a person and I wouldn't trade this experience for the world.
ReplyDeleteI was amazed by the wonders of Lublin. It truly was a beautiful city. It makes me wonder how it looked during it prime but the fact that it is still gorgeous right now, just means that it used to be even greater.
ReplyDeleteI am disappointed though with the city. It got rid of all the remnants of the Jewish neighborhoods in it. The only thing remaining is a light- post. Not even any pictures of how it used to look. Just a light- post. Of all the things there, that was one thing that did not warm my heart up too much.
I have studied Talmud in the order of Daf Yomi in the past. Unfortunately, Talmud is not something I rather enjoy, so I do not feel I will study it at any time in the near future.
Majdonek was a struggle for me. Seeing the remnants of a "machine" meant only for the death of those in it hardened me into a fine anger. I was glad that I received the opportunity to go there and learn about it rather than sit in a classroom, reading about from the inside of a stupid textbook. I will also never forget the experience of going into the camp, and the feeling that I was able to walk out of the camp whenever I wanted- unlike the people imprisoned there. Sadly though, Majdonek was just a taste of the cruelty of the Holocaust. It gave me a better understanding of the Holocaust but it did not help me understand why.