Monument to the Ghetto Heroes

Coordinates: 52°14′59″N 20°59′38″E / 52.24972°N 20.99389°E / 52.24972; 20.99389
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Monument to the Ghetto Heroes
Pomnik Bohaterów Getta w Warszawie
האנדרטה לזכר מרד גטו ורשה
מאָנומענט פֿאַר די געטאָ העלדן אין ווארשע
Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, western side
Map
52°14′59″N 20°59′38″E / 52.24972°N 20.99389°E / 52.24972; 20.99389
LocationMuranów, Warsaw, Poland
DesignerNathan Rapoport
Materialbronze and stone
Beginning date1946
Completion date1948
Opening date16 April 1946
Dedicated date19 April
Dedicated toWarsaw Ghetto

The Monument to the Ghetto Heroes (

Second World War. It is located in the area which was formerly a part of the Warsaw Ghetto
, at the spot where the first armed clash of the uprising took place.

The monument was built partly of Nazi German materials originally brought to Warsaw in 1942 by Albert Speer for his planned works. The completed monument was formally unveiled in April 1948.

History and description

The monument was raised in the square bordered by Anielewicza Street, Karmelicka Street, Lewartowskiego Street and

Zamenhofa Street.[1] From August 1942 until the end of the Warsaw ghetto this was the last location of the Judenrat. The site also witnessed several clashes between the Warsaw Ghetto Jewish partisans and the German and auxiliary troops.[2]

1946 memorial tablet

Suzin plaque

The decision to build a monument to the ghetto partisans was made as early as in 1944, by the Central Committee of Polish Jews in Lublin.[1][2] The monument was designed by Leon Suzin.[1][2] The first part of the monument, a small memorial tablet, was unveiled on April 16, 1946; the plaque was in the shape of a circle, with a palm leaf, a Hebrew letter "B" ב‎, and a Hebrew, Polish and Yiddish inscription: "For those who fell in an unprecedented and heroic struggle for the dignity and freedom of the Jewish people, for a free Poland, and for the liberation of mankind. Polish Jews".[1][2] It was also decided to build a larger monument in the future.[2]

Rapoport monument

The new, larger monument, sculpted by Nathan Rapoport (who worked under the supervision of Suzin), was unveiled on April 19, 1948.[2][3] The monument stands 11 meters (36 ft) tall.[2] As Rapoport himself explained, the "wall" of the monument was designed to evoke not just the ghetto walls, but also the Western Wall ("Wailing Wall") in Jerusalem. The great stones would thus have "framed the memory of events in Warsaw in the iconographic figure of Judaism's holiest site".[4] The labradorite stone used in parts of the monument comes from German supplies, ordered by Albert Speer in 1942 for planned Nazi German monuments.[2]

The western part of the monument shows a

Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa
(ŻOB; English: Jewish Combat Organization) during the uprising. [Note 1]

Eastern side of the monument
President Barack Obama at the monument during his visit to Poland, May 27, 2011

The eastern part of the monument shows the persecution of Jews at the hands of the Nazi German oppressors.[2] The monument has a three-language sign: "Jewish nation to its fighters and martyrs."[2]

Commemoration-related events

The

Warschauer Kniefall (German for "Warsaw kneeling") by Willy Brandt took place in front of the monument in 1970, when Brandt was the Chancellor of West Germany.[6]

The

Museum of the History of Polish Jews
located opposite the monument was opened in April 2013.

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ Anielewicz was instrumental in the first act of the
    18 Miła Street.[5]
    His body was never found; nevertheless, the inscription on the obelisk at the site of the Miła 18 bunker states that he is buried there.

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d "The First Warsaw Ghetto Heroes Monument (Anielewicza St./ Zamenhofa St.)". Virtual Shtetl. Museum of the History of Polish Jews. sztetl.org.pl. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Szczepan-Wojnarowska, Anna. "Pomnik Bohaterów Getta przy ul. Zamenhofa - Miejsca martyrologii - Zabytki - Warszawa - Wirtualny Sztetl". Sztetl.org.pl. Retrieved 2012-12-08.
  3. ISBN 9780300112344
  4. ^ Young, James E. The Texture of Memory, Yale 1993, p. 171
  5. ISBN 978-0-521-85096-4
    .
  6. ISBN 978-0-19-926598-5
    . Retrieved 8 December 2012.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Monument of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Warsaw.
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