Day 7: Lublin

As the train arrived in Lublin, Poland, we went to the hotel to unpack. After that, we went on a scavenger hunt around Lublin. The object of the game was to find evidence of Jewish life. When we were taking pictures we found a sign that spoke about the gate that separated the Jewish people from the Christians. The gate was put up in the 14th century, well before the Holocaust took place. At that time Lublin was populated mostly with Jewish people and Christians. The Christians wanted to be separated from the Jews because they believed that anyone that handled money was considered evil. There were very few Christians that handled money because of this belief. Since the Jews did not believe this, they became bankers. That is one of the reasons why the Christians wanted the Jews to stay on their own part of town. Eventually their belief became a stereotype that labeled Jews as money hungry and stingy. The gate was taken down in 1862, 77 years before the Nazis invaded Poland.
There was not that much evidence of Jewish life here in Lublin. In my group we only found two Jewish restaurants in the old town, but the restaurants are located on a side street where most people would not even go. Before WWII there were more than 38,000 Jewish people living in Lublin. However, today there are only about two dozen who still live in city. I think it is important for there to be more memorials to the past because most people in the city today are not aware of its diverse past.
As other groups found signs of Jewish life, my group didn't find anything. The reason is that we stayed in the Old Town and didn't pass through to the other side of the city. But in a way I think that was the point to the game because as you read before this city was heavily populated with Jews. In fact, Jews made up 35% of the population. Now the city is a ghost town with very few Jews. It's very shocking to me how a city filled with so much Jewish life can end up the way it is now. This is a perfect example why we should never forget because the hatred of the Nazis destroyed Jewish life and it could happen again with any race.