In the heart of Lublin, Poland, the aroma of freshly baked bread still wafts from the Kuźmiuk Bakery, a fixture on Furmańska Street since 1944. But behind its warm, inviting facade lies a poignant story of loss and rediscovery that has only recently come to light.
In 2017, Katarzyna Goławski, the third-generation owner, was stunned by a visit from Esther Minars, an American woman with a startling revelation. The bakery, Minars explained, had once belonged to her great-uncle and aunt, Mordka and Doba Bajtel, Jewish bakers erased by the Holocaust.
"It made an impact on us because they lived here in this place, and she visited us."" Goławski recounted. The revelation that her family home was once the Bajtels' apartment gave her a personal connection to the tragic history.
Before World War II, Lublin pulsed with Jewish life. The Bajtel bakery was a local legend, with lines stretching out the door for their renowned rye bread and onion rolls. Mordka Bajtel, a devout man, generously supported local Jewish institutions with his profits.
The Nazi occupation shattered this vibrant community. Forced to bake for the Germans, the Bajtels were eventually murdered in 1942. Of Lublin's 40,000 Jews, only about 40 remain today.
Minars' mother, Eva Eisenkeit, survived by hiding in a hole beneath a pigsty for 22 months; she was the sole survivor of her entire extended family.
Today, the Kuźmiuk Bakery's bestseller is "cebularz," an onion flatbread with Jewish roots, now a beloved Polish staple. This pastry embodies the complex legacy of Jewish culture in Poland - cherished traditions continuing in the absence of the community that created them.
Goławski, moved by her bakery's newly discovered past, is creating a Hebrew-language brochure about cebularz's Jewish origins. It's a small but meaningful step in acknowledging the intertwined histories of Poles and Jews, and the enduring impact of the Holocaust on Lublin's cultural landscape.
As dawn breaks each day on Furmańska Street, the Kuźmiuk Bakery continues its century-old tradition of baking bread, a poignant reminder of Lublin's rich Jewish heritage and tragic past.
* The Times of Israel contributed to this article.
