Pro Memoria Edith Stein Museum in Lubliniec

At ul. Edyty Stein 2 in Lubliniec stands the townhouse where Edith Stein's grandparents – the Courant family – lived. Since 28 February 2009 its upper floor has housed the Pro Memoria Edith Stein Museum, devoted to the philosopher, Carmelite nun and saint, patron of Europe and of the town. It is a museum without cases full of objects: what matters here is atmosphere, light and two authentic relics of the family home.

Lubliniec – "my beloved town"

Edith Stein was born in 1891 in Wrocław (then Breslau) into a Jewish family. As a child she spent holidays with relatives in Lubliniec and, as she later recalled, there was no greater joy for the children than going to this small town, where they knew every corner. She called Lubliniec "my beloved town", and when leaving Wrocław she would say "we're going home". From agnostic she became a philosophy student, then a convert and a Carmelite – Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Arrested in the Netherlands, she died at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942. In 2008 a decree of the Holy See made her patron of Lubliniec.

A door and a threshold saved from a boiler room

Although the grandparents' house survived the war, little of the interior remained: the threshold and the front door. When people began searching for them, they turned out to be lying in a boiler room, waiting to be cut up and burned. Today you enter the museum through that very door – stepping over the threshold the future saint crossed so many times.

What to see

The museum was conceived by Lubliniec-born Marcin Cyroń, who took the Warsaw Rising Museum as his model. Instead of exhibits there are backlit panels, dim light and music.

• A family tree of the Steins, traceable back to the mid-17th century.
• Biographical panels: childhood, studies, baptism, the convent and the last journey to Auschwitz.
• An installation of cobbles and railway tracks that turn into an image and end in a streak of light – a reference to the transport that took Edith Stein to the camp.
• A map of Europe with places linked to the continent's patron, and information about the Holocaust.
• A temporary exhibition room and screens showing films of the ceremonies naming her the town's patron.

All texts are translated into English and German. In 2012 the museum was visited by President Bronisław Komorowski.

Tripto tips

• Opening hours: opening days have changed over the years – before visiting, call the Lubliniec Tourist Information Centre (tel. +48 534 200 582), which provides contact with the museum.
• Time needed: 30–45 minutes is enough for the exhibition.
• Edith Stein trail: the town also has a statue of the saint on the Little Market Square, Stein Square and the Sanctuary of St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross on ul. Oleska.