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This database contains the names of 4,587 Jews in the ghetto of Lublin, Poland, in April 1942.

Background – Jews in Lublin

Jews were first mentioned in Lublin in the 15th Century.  They were confined in a Jewish area from that time until 1862, when residence restrictions were removed in Congress Poland.  Lublin was an important center of Jewish religion and culture in Poland — some say the most important.

Jews did not have any easy life in Lublin.  They faced restrictions on commerce, heavy taxation, and violence.  In 1598, for instance, a blood libel resulted in the death of three Jews and in 1646, riots by Catholic college students resulted in eight deaths.  In 1655, the city was captured by the Cossacks and 10,000 Jews were massacred.  After that, the Jewish population did not reach its previous level until the early 19th Century.  In 1806 the Jewish population was 2,973; in 1857, 8,747; and 23,586 in 1897, which was approximately half of the total population.

By the late 18th Century, Jews were a majority in many trades: they were tailors, glaziers, furriers, and jewelers.  They were also heavily represented in money-lending and Hebrew printing.  Many Jews were involved in the grain trade, buying at fairs or estates and selling in Warsaw and Dańzig (Gdansk).  However, most Jews were shopkeepers and peddlers.

In 1566, the Maharshal Synagogue was built.  Hasidism began to spread in the latter part of the 18th Century.  The community started a 90-bed hospital in 1866, an old-age home, and an orphanage, as well as charitable and self-help organizations.  In the late 19th Century, 800 boys and 100 girls studied in 43 private hadarim and there was a Talmud Torah for the indigent.  In 1897-98, two Hebrew schools opened, and in 1913 there was a Yavne school.  The first Bund office opened in 1904.  Zionist activity increased after the Balfour Declaration in 1917.

World War I brought travail to the Jewish community.  Cossacks, with permission from the Russians, pillaged Jewish property.  In 1915, the Austrians restored some order, but in 1919 the Jews were assaulted by mobs.  In 1921, the population was 37,337, with Jews operating 1,714 workshops and businesses.  Jews manufactured clothing and food products, had a monopoly on the leather industry, and ran distilleries, brickyards, and tobacco plants.  After World War I there were a number of youth movements and educational facilities: Hashomir Hatzair, Tarbut Hebrew school, Mizrachi's Yavne school, and a Beth Jacob school for 200 girls set up by Agudat Israel.

Anti-Semitism grew in the 1930s, and as Jewish businesses were boycotted, many lost their livelihoods and had to rely on community support.

Holocaust Period

The Nazis entered Lublin on September 18, 1939.  The Jewish population then was approximately 40,000, about a third of the town's total population.  All Jews were taken for forced labor.  On October 26, 1939, Lublin was incorporated into the General Gouvernment.  On November 9, Odilo Globocnik (who was responsible for erecting Majdanek, Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka death camps) became head of the district police and the SS.  A Judenrat of 24 members was set up in January 1940.

The history of the Tatarski Ghetto is covered in the Lublin chapter of Pinkas HaKehillot, Poland, Volume VII.  The English translation by Morris Gradel can be read at http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/pinkas_poland/pol7_00013.html.

After the War, only 230 Lublin Jews survived within German-occupied territory.  By 1946, 6,662 Jews were in the city, but by 1970 few remained.

Resources:

• Pinkas HaKehillot chapter on Lublin, Poland, Volume VII, pp. 13-38, http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/pinkas_poland/pol7_00014.html
• The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life, 2001, Vol. II, pp. 752-756.
• http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/belzec/belzec.html
• http://www.jewishgen.org/Yizkor/belzec1/belzec1.html

Attachments:

Our sincere appreciation to Yad Vashem for permitting us to include two files from its "Holocaust Documents", ©2004 Yad Vashem, as Attachments to the Introduction:

• Protocol of General Meeting of the Judenrat in Lublin on March 31, 1942
• Official Definition of the Term "Jew" in the Government-General, July 24, 1940

The following images of pages from the ghetto list may be viewed:

• Typewritten page 1
• Typewritten page 2
• Handwritten page 1

Database

By Nolan Altman

This database includes 4,587 Jews from the Lublin Ghetto, Poland.  The list was prepared in April 1942 after the deportations from Lublin ghetto to Belzec.  The fields of the database are as follows:

• Surname and Given Name (and Maiden name if known)
• Date of Birth
• Place of Birth (Current name of place)
• Permit Number
• Other Surnames
• Comments — see table below

The following table will assist in translating the notations in the Comments column.

Source of the Database

Robert Kuwalek, a historian from Majdanek & Belzec Museums, wrote the following:

"The list of the Lublin Jews is part of the archival collection of the Lublin State Archive [including] the collection of the documents of the Lublin`s Judenrat.  The list was prepared in April 1942 after the deportations from Lublin ghetto to Belzec.  On the list are only the people who got the J-Ausweis from the Germans and permit to stay in the small ghetto on Majdan Tatarski in Lublin.  Of course, except those people who are on the list, there were "illegal" people in the ghetto too.  I know it from the survivors...  Children under the 14 year [are not on the list; however, the children were in the ghetto, too.

[A] copy of this list is also in the archive at State Majdanek Museum.  For me this document is very important because according to this document I can explain who was deported to Belzec - the lack of the names and who was deported to Majdanek because most of these people were deported there on 9th of November 1942 when the small ghetto was finally liquidated.

The list was prepared by Lublin`s Judenrat and it was [the] official document for the Germans that time.  If [there] were... selections in the ghetto, the Germans checked this list and they cut the names of the selected people from the list.  But as I explained... most of the people who were on this list were sent to Majdanek.

I gave this list [to the] Lublin Landsmanschaft and they organised the special exhibition during their meeting in Tel-Aviv last year.  Everybody could check the fate of their relatives."

Acknowledgments

The information contained in this database was indexed from the Lublin Judenrat's lists mentioned above, copies of which are in the Lublin State Archives and at State Majdanek Museum.  This information is accessible to you today thanks to the efforts of Ada Holtzman and Jacob Gorfinkel.  Additional thanks to Morris Gradel for the use of his translation of the article "The Ghetto in Majdan Tatarski" and to Yad Vashem for permission to include the two attachments.

Special thanks to Adv. Yossi Dakar, chairman of the Lublin Organization in Israel http://www.lublin.org.il/, who provided the list for computerization and distribution after receiving it from the Polish historian Robert Kuwalek, Majdanek & Belzec Museums.

In addition, thanks to JewishGen Inc. for providing the website and database expertise to make this database accessible.  Special thanks to Susan King, Warren Blatt and Michael Tobias for their continued contributions to Jewish genealogy.  Particular thanks to the Research Division headed by Joyce Field and to Nolan Altman, coordinator of Holocaust files.

Joyce Field
July 2006

Searching the Database

This database is searchable via both JewishGen's Holocaust Database and the JewishGen Poland Database.

Copyright ©2006 JewishGen, Inc.
Last Update: 14 Oct 2006 by WSB