Districts of Extermination

German Ghettos for Jews in Occupied Lublin

The exhibition shows the multidimensional history of the ghetto at Podzamcze and the Lublin’s secondary ghetto at Majdan Tatarski.

Important information

Temporary exhibitionArchival

Exhibition date:24.03.2016 - 28.02.2018
Place:Lublin, State Museum at Majdanek
Translation:Witold Wojtaszko
Language version:Polish, English
Artistic design:Izabela Tomasiewicz

The exhibition has been prepared in two independent forms and was presented both in the Lublin’s city centre (from March to May 2017) and in the State Museum at Majdanek. In that way, the memory of the ghetto and its inhabitants was evoked in both spaces connected with the Jews of Lublin – where they used to live, and where they were murdered in the Holocaust.

Creation of the Ghetto at Podzamcze

On 24 March 1941, the German occupiers established a ghetto in Lublin’s historic Jewish quarter with around 34,000 inhabitants. The area was enclosed and isolated from the remaining parts of the city. For Lublin’s Jews, the forced resettlement resulted with dramatic collapse of their living conditions – food shortages, lack of medical care and no access to basic hygiene measures.

A city street, a group of people walking among tenement houses, two men carrying bundles. — Jews in Lublin’s Grodzka Street, 1940/1941.

A black-and-white historical photograph showing urban buildings; people are walking along the street in front of them; in the foreground, a woman in a dress; in the center, a man is pushing a bicycle; on the left, a sign reading: Getto! Betreten fur Wermacht Verboten — Board placed at the entry into the Podzamcze ghetto near the junction of Ruska and Targowa streets.

Ghetto Liquidation and Deportations to Bełżec

The liquidation of the ghetto at Podzamcze began on 17 March 1942. The Germans deported around 28,000 Jews to the extermination camp in Bełżec throughout March and April 1942. They were all murdered in the gas chambers. Those measures were applied within operation “Reinhardt” – the programme of exterminating all Jews residing in the General Government. Those who remained in the Podzamcze ghetto, were resettled to the secondary ghetto in the Majdan Tatarski quarter.

Portret trzyosobowej rodziny, mężczyzna z grzywką ułożoną w formie loków, ok 5 letni chłopiec oraz kobieta w białej bluzce ze stójką — Hersz Akerman with his daughter Małka and his son Berle-Berle. Over 40 members of the Akerman family were among the Jews, who were deported from Lublin to Bełżec in the spring of 1942.

A black-and-white historical photograph showing, in the foreground, a brick fence with an entrance running diagonally, and in the background, an imposing building with many windows — Municipal slaughterhouse in Lublin’s Zimna Street, which had its own railway ramp. From there, the Germans departed all transports of Lublin’s Jews to the extermination camp in Bełżec.

Majdan Tatarski Ghetto – Final Stage of the Holocaust

The ghetto at Majdan Tatarski functioned between April and November 1942. The Jews lived there in even worse conditions than at Podzamcze, struggling with overcrowding, hunger, and constant terror. On 9 November the final liquidation of the ghetto took place. Its residents were murdered at the Majdanek concentration camp, in the Sobibór death camp, some were shot in the nearby Krępiecki forest.

A yellowed Ausweis document in German, with a partially damaged photograph of a man, dated May 18, 1942. — J-Ausweis that permitted the residence of its bearer in the Majdan Tatarski ghetto.

A drawing showing a map of Lublin with the outlines of the ghettos on a yellow background — Ghetto boundaries marked on the wartime plan of Lublin.

Remembrance of the Victims

During the both ghettos’ functioning and in the camps their residents were deported to, around 40,000 Jews were murdered – the citizens of Lublin and the region, but also those resettled there from Łódź, Kalisz, Sieradz, Kraków, Warsaw, as well as from Germany and Czechia. Lublin – once among the most important and thriving Jewish communities of Europe – was almost completely deprived of the Jewish population.

Exhibition – Echo of History

The exhibition was opened on the 75^th anniversary of the ghetto’s creation as a tribute to the victims’ suffering. It comprises 120 photographs and archival documents, which stem from Polish and foreign archives as well as from private collections. They were accompanied by over 50 testimonies given by people who survived the ghetto or witnessed its liquidation. Their words bring forth the memory of the people who perished, and of the city that was irreversibly altered by the Holocaust.

Fragment of an exhibition panel, inscription: Districtis of Extermination, a woman in the background

A man standing in front of an exhibition — Krzysztof Banach during the exhibition opening in the State Museum at Majdanek.

Curatorial tour through the exhibition in Lublin.