Warsaw ghetto - resistance

[webbhead]

1) Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, Warwaw - In April 1943, following the deportation of many ghetto inmates to Treblinka, members of the Jewish Combat Organisation led an armed uprising against the Nazis. The uprising failed. Most of its participants committed suicide or were shot. A few escaped to join other resistance movements.

2) Site of Jewish Combat Organisation bunker, Warsaw. Ghetto fighters died in the underground bunker after the failed uprising. The mound (about 10 feet in height) is meant to represent the height of Warsaw's rubble after the SS destroyed it.

3) Last fragment of the ghetto wall, sandwiched between apartment blocks in a courtyard off a residential street. Height: 3 metres (about 10 feet).

[webbhead]

I should add that the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of '43 (and the '44 general uprising), though doomed to failure in sheer physical terms, was NOT a failure in the sense that people with nothing to lose decided to make a brave stand against their oppressors. For this they are rightfully commemorated.

[Kiwiwriter]

Great photographs. Given that Warsaw suffered four major battles, it's amazing that any piece of the wall survived at all. I'd like to look at before-and-after shots of the old Ghetto area and see what became of it.

[webbhead]

Before-and-after shots would be something of a disappointment. After the war the whole ghetto area was turned into a housing development full of grey, nondescript blocks of flats. Under Stalin's regime the Holocaust was a taboo subject in Poland, and of course private property was nullified, so the flats were a convenient way to rebuild the city, house the people, and erase the memory of the ghetto's past. The wall fragments only survived because they were at the extreme southern end of the ghetto, hidden in a courtyard, and people liked to use it to mount their TV antennae.

That being said, there are still a number of things worth visiting in the former ghetto and much has been done in recent years to revive the ghetto's history in Warsaw.

Here's a list of highlights for anyone planning a visit. I visited the sites roughly in this order during a single afternoon. For orientation, the main traffic artery is Jana Pawla II Street, which runs North-South. All of these sites are WEST of Warsaw's old town, where the tourists gather.

- Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, Zamenhofa Street (photo above)
- Memorial to Zegota (an organization of non-Jews dedicated to helping Jews), beside the Ghetto Heroes monument
- Jewish Combat Organisation bunker memorial, Zamenhofa Street (pic above)
- Path of Remembrance (chain of commemorative plaques), Zamenhofa and Slawki streets
- Umschlagplatz monument (area used for deportations to death camps), Slawki Street near the university
- Pawiak Prison (where political prisoners, Jewish & non-Jewish) were imprisoned, Jana Pawla II Street at Dzielna Street
- Zydowski Jewish Cemetery, Okopowa Street (men must wear a yarmulke)
- Korczak Orphanage and monument, Jaktorowska St (south of cemetery)
- Nozyk Synagogue, the only pre-war synagogue to survive in downtown Warsaw, Twarda Street near Jana Pawla II Street
- Jewish theatre, near Nozyk Synagogue
- remnants of ghetto wall, down an alleyway at 62 Zlota Street off of Jana Pawla II Street
Also look for manhole covers, preserved behind fences to commemorate their use by resistance fighters. There's one not far from the '44 Uprising Monument (also a must see), but I forget the street.

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[angie999]

Very moving. Thanks for posting them. I agree. The rising could not succeed in an absolute sense, but it was none the less a victory.

[paullaw1155]

I recall reading a book by Martin Gilbertson (I think). it gave excellent accounts
of resistance or lack of resistance to the Nazi tyranny.

I think most of us think why did the Jews not fight back when they new that they was giong to die, take some of them with me before i die. This book answered all of these types of questions and made you realise that things was not as simple as we perhaps believe taking this option was.

I can not remember the title of the book is or if I have the correct author. Can anyone help.

[pusspuss]

Would that be Martin Gilbert?

[Wise1]

It was Martin Gilbert.

[Nick]

great book, very hard hitting and detailed , im sure its called "the holocaust "