Natalia Soral’s frame of reference is her hometown of Łódź, the former industrial center and third-largest city in Poland. Before being virtually decimated during the Holocaust, the city’s Jewish community comprised nearly a quarter of a million souls—one third of the city’s total population.
Known as the “Manchester of Poland,” Łódź teemed with textile factories and workshops, as well as yeshivahs, synagogues, and centers of Chassidic life. It was home to a large contingent of Alexander Chassidim, a group that was nearly entirely wiped out during the Holocaust.
Today, Soral, a photography enthusiast and art history major, is passionate about discovering and preserving her city’s Jewish past.
Q: What got you interested in Judaism and the Jewish community? Was it something in your family?
Our family has no Jewish history that we know of, but neither are we Catholic. It began when I was fifteen. I have always been sensitive to the Holocaust and what was done here in Poland. As I dug deeper, I realized that although the Holocaust may have tragically ended much of Jewish life here, there is more to Judaism than that. I started connecting to some of the very few Jews who live here in Łódź and began learning Yiddish with the help of a prewar Yiddish-Polish dictionary. I attended a three-week Yiddish seminar in Warsaw and saw how much I love the language.
Q: How unusual is that? How much do your peers know about Poland’s Jewish history and the Holocaust?
My generation has access to more information than our parents did, because we grew up in a free, democratic country, where information and reliable sources are available. The older generation did not have such access to the truth of history, because back then everything had to be consistent with Soviet propaganda. Now we can check sources and form our own ideas.
Sure, there is a small minority of detractors, but they are very much on the fringe and do not represent what most of us value or believe.
There are many brave and honest Polish historians who focus on documenting the Holocaust. I have read their books and try to learn as much as possible.
Most people are curious and want to learn, and I believe that the more information is available, the better off we all are.
Q: Have you ever been to a bustling Jewish community? Have you ever left Poland?
No, my experiences are all from here. I have been to Krakow and Warsaw, where there are more Jews. In Krakow I saw visibly Jewish people on the street, which was so different and exciting for me, since it gave me an inkling of what Jewish life may have been like here before the war.
Q: Have you met anyone, Jewish or Polish, who remembered the Jews who once lived in Łódź?
Not directly, but I once gave a tour to an Israeli couple. The wife’s father was from Łódź, and she knew a lot about his past, the butcher shop where he worked, the synagogue where he prayed. I was able to imagine what the place once looked like with Yiddish signs on the shop and Jewish people bustling about.
The buildings are still here, but the people are missing.
Q: Walking in the streets of Łódź, does one see any traces of what once was?
If you have a good guide, then yes. Many of the pre-war buildings survived.
Much of this city was developed by Izrael Poznański, whose palace stands in the center of the city and now houses the Museum of the City of Łódź.
If you know how to look, you can see marks on doors where there were once mezuzahs, structures for sukkahs in backyards, and other hints of Jewish life.
Łódź once had 200 synagogues and shtiebels. Now there are two, only one from the pre-war era.
Perhaps the most significant mark of our Jewish past is the Jewish cemetery, one of the largest in Europe, which includes the towering Poznański mausoleum.
It was once very run down and neglected. Since 1980, however, it has been registered as a landmark and is protected by law.
It is a beautiful place, with old trees and greenery. In the spring, the birds sing, and people love to walk there.
But it’s not just a park. I have really connected to the place and to the people who are buried there, including those in the mass graves who died in the Łódź Ghetto, the second-largest ghetto in Poland.
Q: With most of Poland’s Jews dead for several generations, what relevance do you think Jewish people have to Polish people today?
Jews have contributed so much to Polish culture and history. People do not even realize how Jewish poets, artists and innovators are part and parcel of what Poland is today.
There are even many Yiddish words that are now part of the Polish language. We eat a braided bread called chalka, named for Jewish challah. We say git for OK; the Polish word mecyje is from Yiddish metzia, meaning an unusual find; and we say cymes from tzimmes, about something really good.
We cannot understand who we, Polish people, are, unless we understand the Jewish people who lived in and contributed to Poland for centuries.
To seek and accept the truth is not unpatriotic. I do not need to cover up or defend the terrible things that were done, just because the perpetrators spoke the same language as me or because it happened where I live.
We must acknowledge the past and work toward ensuring it never happens again.
Q: How do you learn about Judaism?
I have some books—I mentioned my Yiddish dictionary before, and I have also read Tanach—and there are some good resources in Polish, but not nearly enough.
I have found Chabad.org to be a wonderful resource. I discovered the site while trying to learn about the Jewish months and soon found that I could learn about everything Jewish there.
I am hoping to focus on Judaism for my masters degree and then share what I learn with my fellow Polish people. On one hand, I want to tell the truth, even when it hurts, but at the same time I hope to make Judaism accessible and approachable to as many people as possible.
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