Part 3 - WARSZAWA - April 2014

We arrived in WARSZAWA the next day at 13:45, however the station we arrived at wasn’t the main station, but one out in the suburbs & on the wrong side of the river VISTULA to where we wanted to be. The only way we could get a taxi was to call the hotel & get them to send one out to us, so by the time we arrived at the hotel it was nearly 15:00 hours. However the MALMAISON Hotel was very good & we were able to get a decent lunch (& dinner that night) in the hotel restaurant, & this was of a much better quality than we had been able to buy previously in POLAND. The hotel was of a very good standard, & in fact was voted top hotel in WARSZAWA the previous year, so we were very happy there.

We had previously booked a guided tour with a lady called Halina, who arrived promptly at 09:00 the next morning & we started our tour with her. I have to inform you if you didn’t already know, that what the GERMANS didn’t destroy of WARSZAWA the RUSSIANS did, so very little of pre WWII WARSZAWA is left, which means that JEWISH sights are difficult to find anywhere & even scarcer in their original condition.

When the RUSSIANS were advancing on WARSZAWA in 1944 the POLISH underground AK (Armia Krajowa) rose up against the GERMANS, expecting the RUSSIANS to help them against the GERMAN Army. As the Polish Underground was a non-communist organisation, the RUSSIANS halted on the eastern bank of the VISTULA River (where we arrived) until the GERMANS had just about killed off the POLES. They then subjected WARSZAWA to a massive attack with bombers & artillery until hardly a building was left standing. WARSZAWA actually suffered more destruction than BERLIN.

WARSZAWA DESTRUCTION

At the beginning of WWII the population of WARSZAWA was 790,000 POLES with 393,950 JEWS, meaning JEWS were a third of the population. Within a short period the JEWS were moved into the GHETTO, which represented 2.4% of the area of the city, & 113,000 Poles were moved out to make room for them. The number of JEWS soon swelled to over 500,000, with the transport of JEWS from other places by the GERMANS. The first mass deportations of 300,000 JEWS to TREBLINKA, began in the summer of 1942. The second wave of deportations to TREBLINKA started on 18^th January 1943, & had to be halted after 4 days because of JEWISH armed resistance.

The GHETTO Uprising began on 19/APR/1943 with 9 Rifles, 59 Pistols and a couple of Grenades led by Mordechai ANIELEWICZ. They managed to fight the GERMAN SS Troops until 16/MAY/1943, when the Great Synagogue was blown up, & by then over 60,000 JEWS had died in the uprising. Its also worth noting that the WARSZAWA GHETTO Uprising by a few JEWS took the GERMANS 27 Days to put down, yet the POLISH UNDERGROUND ARMY, which was properly armed & trained only lasted 61 days

WARSZAWA GHETTO 1945

WARSZAWA GHETTO 1947

This is an example of a tenement building in the WARSZAWA GHETTO, & this is probably the only complete building still standing, & this is only because the government can’t decided who the owners are.

WARSZAWA GHETTO TENEMENT

WARSZAWA GHETTO TENEMENT REBUILT

WARSZAWA GHETTO OLD & NEW from GRZYBOWSKI SQUARE

Of all the SYANGOGUES in WARSZAWA only one out of literally hundreds (over 400 houses of prayer) survived the war, & that is the Orthodox Synagogue founded by Zelman & Ryfki NAZYKOW. Though used as a stables & a depot by the GERMANS, it was very badly damaged & has to be rebuilt & reopened in April 1983

WARSZAWA SYNAGOGUE

WARSZAWA SYNAGOGUE

After the Synagogue we went to see the sight of the wooden GHETTO BRIDGE, which spanned a main road (CHLODNA STREET) that the GERMANS wanted too keep open as they used this road to move their troops through WARSZAWA

WARSZAWA GHETTO BRIDGE

WARSZAWA GHETTO BRIDGE ORIGINAL

On the pavement close to the sight of the GHETTO BRIDGE there are markers set into the pavement, which mark the boundary of the JEWISH GHETTO.

WARSZAWA GHETTO WALL ROUTE

Halina took us to find one of the few remaining parts of the Original Ghetto Wall, which is hidden between apartment buildings which were built after the war.

WARSZAWA GHETTO WALL 

WARSZAWA GHETTO WALL MAP

WARSZAWA GHETTO WALL PLAQUE

Halina explained that the JEWS would dig out some of the bottom bricks of the wall, this would make a small hole, but one big enough for small children to wriggle through. The children would then buy food on the POLISH side & bring this back to their family in the GHETTO, children as young as 5 or 6 years old would do this countless times a day. Without these brave children, their families would have starved to death sooner. The rations for JEWS was 184 Calories, 690 for POLES, 2613 for GERMANS, & no this is not a mistake, these figures are accurate!

WARSZAWA GHETTO BRICK in WALL 

Over 100,000 JEWS died in the GHETTO from Starvation & Disease, yet despite the terrible conditions in the GHETTO, a rich cultural & religious life was managed. Hospitals, Soup Kitchens, Orphanages, Recreational Facilities, a School System, Libraries, & even a Symphony Orchestra operated during this time.

WARSZAWA GHETTO CHILD DYING of STARVATION

Starting on 22/JUL/1942 GROSSAKTION WARSAW saw the deportation of 300,0000 JEWS from the WARSAWA GHETTO via UMSCHLAGPLATZ (COLLECTION POINT) to TREBLINKA Extermination Camp, the biggest killing of any community in WWII.

WARSZAWA GHETTO ROUTE of MARCH

WARSZAWA UMSCHLAGPLATZ MEMORIAL

WARSZAWA UNSCHLAGPLATZ MEMORIAL

The Memorial, which stands in front of where the railway lines were, which took JEWS directly to the Gas Chambers. The Memorial is supposed to represent an open freight car.

WARSZAWA UMSCHLAGPLATZ LOADING VICTIMS

Close by we went to see the site of MILA 18, which was the site of the Last Stand in the JEWISH GHETTO

WARSZAWA GHETTO LAST STAND

WARSZAWA GHETTO LAST STAND

WARSZAWA GHETTO LAST STAND

WARSZAWA GHETTO UPRISING LAST STAND

Close to MILA 18 is the new Museum of the History of Polish Jews, which is very modern & was designed by the Finnish Architect Rainer MAHLAMAKI, & though it opened last year many of the exhibits are still not ready to view. However the building itself is worth seeing, & of course outside there is the WARSZAWA GHETTO UPRISING MEMORIAL, which is very stirring.

WARSZAWA GHETTO UPRISING MEMORIAL

WARSZAWA GHETTO UPRISING MEMORIAL

Finally we went to the OKOPOWA Street Cemetery, which was opened in 1806, & over the years has been extended many times. There are over 200,000 marked graves , besides pits used as mass graves by the GERMANS when they murdered the JEWS during GHETTO Uprising. The cemetery was often used as a place of execution & both JEWS & POLES we're buried together in the mass graves. The cemetery is one of the biggest JEWISH Cemeteries in Europe if not the world, & still operates today, if rarely. 

IN MEMORY of ONE MILLION JEWISH CHILDREN MURDERED by NAZI GERMAN BARBARIANS with CHANUKIAH

IN MEMORY of ONE MILLION JEWISH CHILDREN MURDERED by NAZI GERMAN BARBARIANS

SYMBOLIC GRAVE IN MEMORY OF EISNER-SZTEINMAN FAMILY

JACK EISNER "ONLY I SURVIVED"

THE LITTLE SMUGGLER IN ENGLISH-YIDDISH-POLISH

Finally we have Janusz KORCZAK, born Henryk GOLDSZMIT in 1879 to a JEWISH Family in WARSZAWA, who became an agnostic, an educator, children's author, paediatrician  & who in 1942 as the head of an Orphanage in WARSZAWA, refused freedom & stayed with his orphans when the institution was sent from the GHETTO to the TREBLINKS Extermination Camp.

JANUSZ KORCZAK

Now back in the UK, I have to think what did I Discover on my Voyage of Discovery. Well let me start by saying that most things lived up, or rather down to my expectations. I had been warned that there wouldn’t be many JEWS in POLAND at all, whereas they once accounted for 1 in 10 of the population, they know account for a few thousand, & in the old SHTETLS I was unlikely to find any evidence of them at all.

So I arrived in KRAKOW with very low expectations, & probably because I’d been before, & was now there with Joan, & it was EASTER Sunday with beautiful sunshine, I must say I thought it was very pleasant, especially when we walked around KAZAMIERZ. It really wasn’t until the second day when we met Jakub & toured the city in an electric buggy, & he told us what had happened there during the SHOAH, & the enormous loss of life in the GHETTO, & the nearly total absence of a proper Jewish life there now, that things started to sink in. The visit to PODGORZE re-emphasized the huge loss to the city of a vibrant community, which had been there for generations. The people of KRAKOW, or at least those involved in the hospitality industry, of which there are many, earn a good living showing people round the JEWISH sights. In addition because of cheap flights from the UK, KRAKOW has become a centre for “Hen Nights” & “Batchelor Parties”.

When you leave the city & venture into the backwater of POLISH life into the area SSE of KIELCE, where the SHTETLS are that my mother & her Family came from, this is where you find many of these small market towns that had a majority of JEWISH people, in some cases as many as 80% plus of the total were JEWISH which is now totally bereft of JEWS, Not one JEW, not one SYNAGOGUE, not one BETH HAMIDRASH, not one MIKVAH, & hardly even a CEMETERY, its as if HITLER, the GERMANS & their POLISH collaborators have made POLAND “JUDENREIN”, & the majority of the people seem happy with this. 

One has to remember it is in this area that the worst POGRAM occurred AFTER the END of WWII in KIELCE, & which it is agreed that this was the cause of the JEWISH survivors leaving POLAND en-masse, aided & abetted by the Communist Government in Post War POLAND. This effectively cleared all JEWS out of POLAND.

Nationally one has to also remember that the ARMIA KRAJOWA, (Home Army or AK), which was at least 400,000 strong, & well armed, was far more effective in killing POLISH JEWS than it was in fighting the GERMANS. Many of their number died when they finally rose up against the GERMANS in WARSZAWA, thinking that the RED ARMY only a few miles away, would soon be in WARSZAWA, but Uncle Joe had other ideas & let the GERMANS finish the AK off, so he didn’t have any opposition to the Communists who were going to take over POLAND after the war, & make POLAND a client state.

This now brings us to WARSZAWA, where before WWII 1 in 3 of the population was JEWISH, & this made WARSZAWA, the most JEWISH city in the world, with the possible exception of NEW YORK. However there was a difference, in that NEW YORK was a city of immigrants, & there the people were all different nationalities, whereas in WARSZAWA you were either JEWISH or POLISH, & this I believe made WARSZAWA more JEWISH even than NEW YORK. Be that as it may, now, as I’ve tried to show previously, the OLD WARSZAWA doesn’t exist, & this has been replaced by mainly Communist era buildings which are drab to say the least, & don’t have any soul. With few exceptions, there are virtually no original Jewish buildings, only one tenement building, & that is unoccupied,, & if there were, there wouldn’t be any JEWS to inhabit them. Once again, other mainly old JEWS looking to find their roots, are the main JEWISH people there, there’s no sense of community, or as we say no “CHRAIN”.

I’m glad I went, it was something I’ve wanted to do for many years, & I believe I was fortunate in having two good guides in both Jakub in KRAKOW & The SHTETLS, & Halina in WARSZAWA, also in meeting some exceptional POLES, like Piotr & Andrej, plus of course Edward & Lucjan. They helped to balance the overwhelming feeling that POLAND is happier to be rid of the JEWS, though they don’t mind making a profit out of us. I’m fortunate that my Ziade had the good sense to bring his family to the comparative safety of LEEDS, & that many of the KATZ & GOLDGRAB Family also fled to CANADA & the US, otherwise we would all have added to the many, many relatives who Died in the GHETTO’S & DEATH CAMPS in POLAND.

"May the Lord bless you & keep you;

May the Lord makes his face shine on you & be gracious to you;

May the Lord lift up his countenance toward you and give you peace."

SHALOM