The Warsaw Ghetto

Not long after I moved into my apartment here, I learned that it was within the area where the Warsaw Ghetto had been. I had picked the apartment based on proximity to work without realizing its historical significance.

As with the Warsaw Uprising (which I wrote about earlier), this is not intended to be a thorough discussion of the Warsaw Ghetto, which had a relatively short but tragic history. Rather, this is a very brief summary of what I have learned about it and the evidence and memorials that can be seen around the city.

Seven months after invading Poland, the Nazis forced Jewish citizens of Warsaw and its suburbs to live in designated areas centered on (but not encompassing all of) Jewish neighborhoods. The forced relocation followed incremental steps depriving people of liberties, finances, jobs, property and personal safety. People who had to move homes were not allowed to take all of their belongings with them, and the vacated properties were either assumed by non-Jews and/or looted.  After the re-locations in Warsaw, an estimated 400,000 people lived in an area of a few square miles.

After seven months, a wall was constructed and ghetto inhabitants required permission to leave. The wall, which was almost 10 feet high and topped by barbed wire, intentionally excluded the main synagogue in Warsaw from the ghetto area. The borders changed several times, and one of the revisions created two separate ghettos, in order to allow a busy commercial street used by the general population of Warsaw to not be cut off. At first, the inhabitants of the ghetto would have to wait to cross that street, which would then be blocked off during the crossings, but later a bridge was built so that the street traffic would not be inconvenienced.

The ghetto area as in 1943

The bridge between the large and small ghettos

When looking at a map or walking around the areas that the ghetto covered, it seems  that there was a lot of space until you realize that the number of people was almost the population of Atlanta, who were living in an area the size of a neighborhood and there were very few opportunities to leave.  Conditions quickly became unsanitary and health care was limited. Food was scarce (as noted in Wikipedia, the average food rations in 1941 for Jews in Warsaw were limited to 184 calories, compared to 699 calories for gentile Poles and 2,613 calories for Germans) and children would be sent to the "Aryan" side of the wall is search of food. Combined with random killings by Nazi soldiers, these factors caused the death rate to climb rapidly. While Jews from other occupied countries were transported in and added to the ghetto, with the high death rate within the ghetto (estimated at about 100,000 people), it is believed that the population did not increase.

Deportations from the ghetto began in July, 1942, and by September about 250,000 - 300,000 people had been taken out. At the northern edge of the ghetto was a plaza with a train platform (Umschlagplatz), and some were enticed to "relocate" with promises of additional food for coming to the plaza to volunteer. When people started to hear news of the extermination camps, an uprising was planned; while it was likely never seen as succeeding in saving the inhabitants of the ghetto, it allowed people to retain their honor in death. 

The uprising began in January 1943, when the German army tried to begin a new round of deportation. They expected no resistance and were caught by surprise, having to curtail the deportation action after a few days and they lost control of the ghetto until April. Just before Passover, a more prepared force entered the ghetto again and met significant resistance. This time, in a sort-of prelude to what would be done after the Warsaw Uprising, the army began systematically destroying buildings, and capturing or killing the inhabitants. By the end of April, most of the ghetto had been destroyed and remaining inhabitants who had not been killed or deported were in hiding. Searches for survivors continued for another month, and the leaders of the uprising who had survived committed a mass suicide rather than be captured. The official end to the uprising was recognized by the Nazis by blowing up the main synagogue.   

As the population declined, the ghetto itself was made smaller but the plot of land where my building is was in the last part left before the final liquidation. After the uprising was suppressed, much of the ghetto area was razed but part was made into a concentration camp. After the war, as the city began rebuilding, much of the area was re-planned, including the creation of the six-lane avenue on which I live which is named after Pope John Paul II.

Today, as you walk around the city you can see indications of where the walls once stood, with markers at irregular intervals explaining what existed or occurred at the given location.  

The bridge between the large and small ghettos was demolished long ago, but a sculpture of sorts, made of iron and wire, represents where it once stood. 

While Umschlagplatz itself is no longer in existence, but a monument in the shape of a train car stands at the site, etched with different names from A to Z in remembrance of those who were deported. 

There are also two places where sections of the wall still stand, and some buildings, the exterior walls of which were incorporated in the barrier, still stand. A third section, which is not confirmed as genuine, is near the Umschlagplatz monument.

Near the Umschlagplatz monument

My neighborhood, therefore, has some of the important sites for those wanting to explore the history of Jews in Warsaw. The cross-street at my apartment building is named after Mordechaj Anielewicz, one of the leaders of the uprising, and a memorial stone marking the location of Miła18, the command post for the uprising, is nearby. A few blocks in the other direction is the Jewish cemetery, which is slowly being restored after years of damage and neglect resulting from the near total decimation of the Jewish population here.

Also nearby is Pawiak Prison. It dates back to the time of the Russian Empire, and it was used as a Gestapo prison during the German occupation. It was blown up and burnt near the end of the war, and only part of the entrance gate and the basement remain, which now serves as a museum

Recently, a museum dedicated to the history of Jews in Poland opened nearby. It sits in a small park that also includes a memorial to the heroes of the ghetto uprising and a plaque commemorating Willy Brandt, the former German chancellor who famously dropped to his knees in front of the memorial in apology for crimes perpetrated upon the Jews by the Nazi regime. The new museum (the opening of which was attended by the presidents of Poland and Israel, among many others) covers a 1,000 year period of which the holocaust is an important part, but not the main focus.

Living here has been a continual reminder of how complicated the recent history of Europe is, with Poland having more than its fair share of the trauma. It is heartening to see that, while some things have been paved over, much else is being retained so that the history is not.