Some time ago my wife came up with the idea to go for a walk in and around the center. She found a route online where you can walk around the Warsaw Ghetto (where the walls used to stand during the second world war).
I had seen these so called 'markers' before, but never realized that these were part of a route.
I had seen these so called 'markers' before, but never realized that these were part of a route.
The Warsaw Ghetto boundary markers are memorial plaques and boundary lines that mark the maximum perimeter of the former ghetto established by the Germans in 1940 in occupied Warsaw. The markers were erected in 2008 and 2010 on 22 sites along the borders of the Jewish quarter, where from 1940-1943 stood the gates to the ghetto, wooden footbridges over Aryan streets, and the buildings important to the ghetto inmates.
The Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto ("getto warszawskie") was the largest of all the Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Europe during World War II. It was established by the German authorities in the Muranów neighborhood of the Polish capital between October and November 16, 1940; within the new General Government territory of German-occupied Poland. There were over 400,000 Jews imprisoned there, at an area of 3.4 km2, with an average of 9.2 persons per room, barely subsisting on meager food rations. From the Warsaw Ghetto, Jews were deported to Nazi camps and mass-killing centers. In the summer of 1942 at least 254,000 Ghetto residents were sent to the Treblinka extermination camp during "Großaktion Warschau" under the guise of "resettlement in the East" over the course of the summer.
The death toll among the Jewish inhabitants of the Ghetto is estimated to be at least 300,000 killed by bullet or gas, combined with 92,000 victims of rampant hunger and hunger-related diseases, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and the casualties of the final destruction of the Ghetto.
The walk
While walking the route, I learned that there was not one big ghetto. The ghetto was growing; a smaller ghetto was being connected to the bigger ghetto by the footbridge I mentioned earlier.
The shadow you see over the line marking the ghetto wall is the shadow of the marker of the bridge.
I can remember I got this strange feeling when walking there, felt chills over my spine. Remains of the ghetto are very limited, as this area was bombed to the ground.
Below you can see some remains of the ghetto wall. This place was close to the wooden bridge, connecting the big ghetto with the small ghetto.
Besides the official markers and plaques, there are several places where you can see the shape of the ghetto and a text sprayed onto the wall.
Polish and Hebrew for "here was the ghetto."
Earlier that year
I spoke to an older man once during one of my walks after Polish classes, he was born right before the war he told me. My Polish was very limited, but the man spoke in a very calm and fascinating way. It was exactly here:
It was in ulica Waliców where we met, also former Warsaw ghetto. What you see is the zabytek (monument) of Waliców 14.
I told then man that I was fascinated by Polish history, especially the 2nd world war and post war era. There has been some controversy about the subject of the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto lately, Israeli journalists were poking up a fire around this subject. Therefore I always am very cautious when talking about it, choosing my words carefully. Same counts for the communism era by the way, the limited history lessons I followed covered just a very general description.
But we walked along and kept talking.
Below you can see some remains of the ghetto wall. This place was close to the wooden bridge, connecting the big ghetto with the small ghetto.
Besides the official markers and plaques, there are several places where you can see the shape of the ghetto and a text sprayed onto the wall.
Polish and Hebrew for "here was the ghetto."
Earlier that year
I spoke to an older man once during one of my walks after Polish classes, he was born right before the war he told me. My Polish was very limited, but the man spoke in a very calm and fascinating way. It was exactly here:
It was in ulica Waliców where we met, also former Warsaw ghetto. What you see is the zabytek (monument) of Waliców 14.
I told then man that I was fascinated by Polish history, especially the 2nd world war and post war era. There has been some controversy about the subject of the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto lately, Israeli journalists were poking up a fire around this subject. Therefore I always am very cautious when talking about it, choosing my words carefully. Same counts for the communism era by the way, the limited history lessons I followed covered just a very general description.
But we walked along and kept talking.
The old man also spoke slow and with care, he was a very wise man. He told me that he will never forget this time, but that we now live in 2018 and the world has changed. We should make the best of it now and not look back too much. You can understand that this was pretty impressing for me as I understood his Polish, but could not really respond to him in a way I wanted.
He felt it and changed the subject to my brand new fast "trampki" (slang for sports shoes). This man also used slang words, so nice. We walked along for a while talking about Poland and Warsaw, it was really nice.
The most bizarre was that we ended making jokes about being married to a Polish woman. Well, he made the jokes and I listened...
He felt it and changed the subject to my brand new fast "trampki" (slang for sports shoes). This man also used slang words, so nice. We walked along for a while talking about Poland and Warsaw, it was really nice.
The most bizarre was that we ended making jokes about being married to a Polish woman. Well, he made the jokes and I listened...
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