"Poemat o Miejscu" Jewish district had existed around
Lublin Castle since the late 14th century, until it was laid waste by the Nazi in November 1943 after the liquidation of the Lublin ghetto. Nowadays, a bus station and lanes occupy its place, whereas the main street of the Jewish district – Szeroka – gave way to an asphalted parking lot. Hence, to prevent from oblivion of the memory of Jewish life that existed there, the centre organizes the mystery of memory «Poemat o Miejscu» (). The event took place at night time in March 2002 and 2004. At the site of the whole former
Lublin Ghetto lights go down, creating a striking contrast with other parts of the city humming with life and pitch black territory around the castle. An unusual route awaits participants of this event. Setting off at Grodka Gate, they follow to the nonexistent now Synagogue Maharszala. On their way, pillars of light are coming from the open sewer manholes, and voices are echoing across the streets. These are recorded audio materials of the stories told by the inmates of Lublin castle prison and local inhabitants, who witnessed the times of the ghetto functioning and liquidation. Getting closer to Tysiąclecia Ave., even the bus station loudspeakers start to ring with voices, but having reached the synagogue, participants see that their way is blocked with a heavy black curtain. In 2004, another symbol of the now vanished Jewish district appeared in Lublin. An original street
lantern on Podwale St. that has remained there since the prewar times (now adapted for electricity) embodies Jewish presence in the area. It was lit as a commemoration token during the second mystery of memory, "Poem of the Place" and has been on ever since, night and day.
"One Land – Two Temples" Mystery of memory «Jedna Ziemia — Dwie Świątynie» () was organized within the framework of the Congress of Christian Culture, held in Lublin on September 15–17, 2000. It was a wide-scale event with around two thousand attendees. The Chief Rabbi of Poland,
Michael Schudrich, gathered some soil into the pot from the place where the synagogue Maharszala used to stand.
Józef Życiński, the Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archbishop of Lublin, collected the soil from the place where St. Michael Roman Catholic Church stood. Then, these pots with soil were passed from hand to hand – Catholics were represented by Lublin youth and righteous among the nations, Jews – by the Jewish survivors of World War II and youth from a twin-town
Rishon Le Zion. In the passage of Grodzka Gate, a symbolic place of unity of Christian and Judaic cultures, the soil from two pots was blended in one large barrel by a Polish and a Jewish child and professor of
John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Romuald Jakub Weksler-Waszkinel. Afterwards, a
grapevine was planted in that barrel. Professor Weksler-Waszkinel was not selected to perform that honoured task by chance. He is a
Roman Catholic priest, who in the age of thirty five learned from his mother, that he was not her biological child, had Jewish descent and was born in a
Jewish ghetto in
Švenčionys (then Święciany in the
interwar Poland). Later on, he managed to find the names of his biological parents and added to his Polish name (Romuald Weksler) the name of his real father (Jakub Waszkinel). Despite the fact that Weksler-Waszkinel self-identifies himself as a Jew, he continues to perform the duties of a Roman Catholic priest. Additionally, Romuald Jakub Weksler-Waszkinel is actively engaged in various activities, aiming at reconciliation of different peoples and religions.
Henio Zytomirski Henio Żytomirski is a Jewish boy who was born and brought up in Lublin. At the age of nine, he was murdered in a
gas chamber at
Majdanek concentration camp. The part of the exposition in the "Grodzka Gate" is devoted to Henio Żytomirski. Apart from that, the centre organizes different commemorative events on a regular basis, such as «Listy do Henia». There was also Henio's profile on
Facebook. Henio's profile was moderated by Piotr Brożek, the Grodzka Gate employee. On the boy's behalf, he was sharing pictures and posts in Polish. Eventually, the profile gained friends among foreigners, who translated it into their mother tongues. The centre collected a sizable piece of data about Henio (including the letters and pictures sent by his family to the relatives), which enabled it to create a rather in-depth reconstruction of the boy's life. But due to the violation of Facebook regulations (creating an impostor account), Henio Żytomirski's page was deleted in July 2010. == Oral history ==