HGIS Lublin is a website containing information about the history of the Lublin city and the region, which enables searching for information about people, events, places and sources. This information is presented on interactive maps, using historical cartographic sources.

We dedicate the service to our late colleague Tadeusz Przystojecki.

HGIS Lublin is a website containing information about the history of the Lublin city and the region, which enables searching for information about people, events, places and sources. This information is presented on interactive maps, using historical cartographic sources.

We dedicate the service to our late colleague Tadeusz Przystojecki.

NN Theatre
×Some parts of this page may be not fully translated. You can use Google Translate to translate missing fragments:

KREMPEL

The family in Lublin was a big family. Some of them were rabbis. But my grandfather Baruch Krempel rebelled against this. He lived a Jewish life, but not an Orthodox life – my father didn't have a bar mitzvah. My family lived outside of the Jewish district. They lived here in Grodzka, in Kościuszki and in Szpitalna Street, which doesn't exist anymore in the same place – the new Szpitalna is not the same as the old one. They were very modern Jewish people for that time. Baruch Krempel had a factory. His children were left in the care of a Christian nanny.

The family in Lublin was a big family. Some of them were rabbis. But my grandfather Baruch Krempel rebelled against this. He lived a Jewish life, but not an Orthodox life – my father didn't have a bar mitzvah. My family lived outside of the Jewish district. They lived here in Grodzka, in Kościuszki and in Szpitalna Street, which doesn't exist anymore in the same place – the new Szpitalna is not the same as the old one. They were very modern Jewish people for that time. Baruch Krempel had a factory. His children were left in the care of a Christian nanny.


They were a very rich family. The tax records in Lublin in 1929 showed that Baruch Krempel paid 200 zlotys in tax, while most of the families were paying 10-20 zlotys.

He also did good things with his money. He used his money to support the orphans – this orphanage in Grodzka Street was a part of his charity work. He helped to create a credit union, a cooperative bank, where people could borrow money at a reduced interest rate to start businesses, because the Polish banks asked for a lot of money. He helped provide funding for other people to start their business.


My grandparents and my great-grandparents were far more assimilated because they lived in the part of town which wasn't the Jewish quarter. But my father Baruch, went through the Jewish school. He couldn't join the army as an officer and he didn't go to the university because of the limited quotas – there was a numerus clausus. Their life here was very difficult. There were just double standards here.


In the mid-1990s I sat with my father for two days as he wrote down the names of the members of his family who perished in the war. We filled in the papers for Yad Vashem. For him that was a time of recognition – that his family could not have survived. It was 50 years after the destruction of the ghetto – it was unlikely that anybody was still alive. He had tried as hard as he could to find them, and if he couldn't find them, they didn't exist. But filling in the papers was the final act, it's like signing the death certificate. We completed 77 papers – 77 names of people who were in his family, who lived in Lublin, and who did not survive... It's a lot of people... I would like you to remember when you walk across the bridge to the Castle why there is a space, why there are no houses. I think it should form who you are and how you behave with other people. Your memorial in Lublin is this empty space. Fill it with joy. Go and have a picnic and have a good time, but remember why this is an empty space. “Living well is the best revenge” - The best way we can remember these people is to live a good life, a full life, a happy life. Every day is a bonus and you must take it as a bonus and live it well. This is the best memorial.