The University Library and the Collegium Iuridicum of the Catholic University of Lublin are linked by a painful history related to Operation “Reinhard” - the extermination of Jews under German occupation. Odilo Globocnik, one of the main organizers and executors of the criminal enterprise, had an office in Collegium Iuriducum, and the library premises were warehouses where the looted property of the Jews was accumulated: gold, diamonds, money, expensive clothes.
The memory of these events will be brought to mind by the exhibition “The Operation that Killed the City. A story of Lublin and its Jewish community in the shadow of the Holocaust based on photographs and documents from the collection of Norbert Podlesny. An exhibition in memory of the victims of Operation Reinhardt,” to the opening of which, the rector of the Catholic University of Lublin, Rev. Prof. Miroslaw Kalinowski, extends an invitation.
- We do not forget this difficult history - we build a future whose foundation is reflection on memory and the source of our identity. We are leaning over those who had to live and die prematurely, by surprise, in cruelty,” says the rector of the Catholic University of Lublin, Rev. Prof. Miroslaw Kalinowski.
Places that witnessed tragic events
March 16, 2025 marks the 83rd anniversary of the beginning of Operation “Reinhardt” under German occupation and the related liquidation of the Lublin ghetto. This is a significant date, also in the history of the University Library of the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL), which since 1949 has been located at 27 Frédéric Chopin St. During World War II, the building was seized by the occupiers to serve as
a warehouse for Operation Reinhard.
- This fact is not widely known, and the upcoming commemoration is an opportunity for the staff of the Library, a place so deeply connected with the tragic events of the war, to commemorate the Victims and make us reflect, to stop for a moment in places we pass by every day,” says Jadwiga Jaźwierska of the KUL University Library, curator of the exhibition.
Designed in 1937 for the Catholic Action, the building was a place where property seized from Jews was collected during the Nazi occupation. After the end of World War II, it was handed over for use to the Catholic University of Lublin by the then Bishop of Lublin, Rev. Stefan Wyszynski.
The map of the criminal enterprise also included the building of the former Stefan Batory Gymnasium, now Collegium Iuridicum of the Catholic University of Lublin at 1 Spokojna Street, where one of the rooms currently houses the headquarters of the Heschel Center of the Catholic University of Lublin. As Rev. Dr. Pawel Rytel-Adrianik, director of the Heschel Center, reminds us: in 1942-1943, the staff of the “Reinhardt” operation, whose goal, according to the protocol of the Berlin/Wannsee conference of January 20, 1942, was “the final solution of the Jewish issue,” i.e. the murder of the Jewish population in the 5 districts of the General Government and the plunder of their property.
A poignant and unique collector's archive
In connection with the collaboration between the KUL University Library and the Lublin-based collector Norbert Podlesny, owner of a unique collection including previously unpresented to the public mementos of the Jewish community, such as photographs, postcards, ephemeral prints, documents, pamphlets, censuses and other artifacts, KUL has arranged an exhibition of extremely valuable historical sources documenting this dramatic part of the history of Lublin.
Photographs and other documents from Norbert Podlesny's collection are a rare and unique historical source, carrying poignant content. We will see photos of pre-war Jewish quarters of Lublin, its residents, photographs of the Lublin ghetto and documents from the occupation period. The opening of the exhibition will be accompanied by a meeting with historians, experts from the Catholic University of Lublin and Lublin's centers of science and culture. The Academy of Modern Media and Communication of the Catholic University of Lublin has also produced a film-miniature to complement the exhibition.
Images and places will speak together
Because of the event’s venue (some of the display boards will be placed in the Collegium Iuridicum), the presented objects will gain special resonance and context. - The fact that a well-known collector has decided to show part of his unique collection for the first time precisely in the University Library of the Catholic University of Lublin is a reason to express words of gratitude for the trust, and at the same time allows us to learn more fully about the tragic fate of the Holocaust Victims,” concludes the exhibition’s curator, Jadwiga Jaźwierska.
The organizers of the exhibition are: University Library, Abraham J. Heschel Center for Catholic-Jewish Relations, Academy of Modern Media and Communication of the Catholic University of Lublin. Exhibition opening: March 21, 10 am, KUL University Library.
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The operation to exterminate Jews in the General Government began in Lublin on March 16/17, 1942. Initially, the deportations covered Lublin and Lviv and parts of the Lublin and Galicia districts. During Phase I of the operation, which was commanded from the beginning by Austrian Nazi Odilo Globocnik, more than 60,000 Jews were sent to the Belzec death camp. Several thousand were executed in individual towns, primarily in the Galicia district. Mass executions were also an integral and horrifying part of the entire operation. Above all, people were shot who the Germans described as “unfit for transport,” that is, the elderly, infirm, invalids and children without parents. Sometimes entire Jewish communities, living in villages far from the railroads, were murdered on the spot.