We had a wonderful day trip to Lublin, Poland the other day with our daughter who came to visit us here in Warsaw. Lublin is a little over a two-hour drive from Warsaw and is about halfway between Warsaw and Ukraine border. It was an enjoyable day, sun was shining, and it was an easy drive. We intended to visit Majdanek Museum (Majdanek Concentration Camp) and the travel onto Treblinka (Death Camp) later in the day. However, plans are plans and then something happens, and we had to change our plans. We did not get up early enough.
World War Two history: Poland has the misfortune of being home to many concentration camps that were set up by the Nazis from 1939 to 44. Many of these sites have been converted into museums or historical sites. The State Musuem of Majdanek was a very wide-open field with quite a few structures still standing. The Nazi party built this camp to house anyone they felt it was necessary to confine them to a small location. They were originally used as slave labor. However, policy changes within the Nazi regime dictated another path. As people were sent to this camp in 1942 through 44, they were put through a selection process where a Nazi Doctor who would make a quick decision to either keep the people who were at least a little bit healthy and who could contribute to the war effort. The others would be directed to a different door where they were sent to the gas chamber. The gas chamber still exists and is in its original condition – I stood at the door and the thought of what had happened in this room just 80 years ago just astonished me. There were several other rooms that could be explored. There were exhibits throughout the complex in both English and Polish. We were able to investigate this room. It brought on some mixed emotions. There were about thirty structures that were used to house these people. Many of them were open to the public, so that everyone could walk through them. This was a sad part of our history, but it is particularly important to keep this place open, so that the story will continue.
After our tour through Majdanek we decided to go to “Lublin Village Open Air Museum.” This was a small community that existing at the turn of the last century and is the largest open-air museum (according to their advertisement) in Poland. The community was active from the late 1800’s to the early 1930. Many of these homes, shops, church, and other community areas were open to the public. It was remarkably interesting to see the construction of these dwellings and to see the simple lifestyle before electricity was readily available. We were able to walk into several the dwellings and saw how simple their lives were. The one thing that really stood out to me was that they must have been short people. All the height of the door frames were short, even my wife had to duck.
It was a very quant area within the city limits of Lublin. The cultural diversity in this community was interesting. It was remarkably quite in this area. All I could hear was an occasional car. All the other noises were from the birds and animals in the area. It was an easy to moderate walk around the area. Some areas were a bit difficult to walk and it would not be recommended for someone who has difficulty walking. I would like to return to this place in the future. It really seemed like a small community that still had some life left in it. There were a few farmers and merchants in the area. The merchants made sense, but the famers, well that was a little bit different. Several of them had livestock. They served a dual purpose of giving this community some life along with giving the farmer somewhere to raise his livestock.
We did stop at a Kebab restaurant for a quick meal. I have found that Kebabs do not adversely affect my blood sugar, and they are good. There are Kebab restaurants all over Poland. They are good and inexpensive. Although many of the employees speak a limited English, but I spent a little bit of time and spoke slowly and simply, I got exactly what I wanted.