The Monument to the Ghetto Heroes ( pl, Pomnik Bohaterów Getta) is a monument in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, commemorating the

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; pl, powstanie w getcie warszawskim; german: link=no, Aufstand im Warschauer Ghetto was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany' ...

of 1943 during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. It is located in the area which was formerly a part of the

Warsaw Ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (german: Warschauer Ghetto, officially , "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; pl, getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the G ...

, at the spot where the first armed clash of the uprising took place. The monument was built partly of

Nazi German Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

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."The First Warsaw Ghetto Heroes Monument (Anielewicza St./ Zamenhofa St.)"

Virtual Shtetl The Virtual Shtetl ( pl, Wirtualny Sztetl) is a bilingual Polish-English portal of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, devoted to the Jewish history of Poland. History The Virtual Shtetl website was officially launched on June ...

. Museum of the History of Polish Jews. sztetl.org.pl. Retrieved 2018-02-21. From August 1942 until the end of the Warsaw ghetto this was the last location of the

Judenrat A ''Judenrat'' (, "Jewish council") was a World War II administrative agency imposed by Nazi Germany on Jewish communities across occupied Europe, principally within the Nazi ghettos. The Germans required Jews to form a ''Judenrat'' in every c ...

. The site also witnessed several clashes between the

Jewish partisans Jewish partisans were fighters in irregular military groups participating in the Jewish resistance movement against Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II. A number of Jewish partisan groups operated across Nazi-occupied Euro ...

and the German and auxiliary troops. Commemorating plate 1946

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. The monument was designed by Leon Suzin. 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 Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

letter "B" , and a Hebrew, Polish and

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

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". It was also decided to build a larger monument in the future.

Rapoport monument

The new, larger monument, sculpted by Nathan Rapoport (who worked under the supervision of Suzin), was unveiled on April 19, 1948. The monument stands tall. As Rapoport himself explained, the "wall" of the monument was designed to evoke not just the Ghetto walls, but also the

Western Wall The Western Wall ( he, הַכּוֹתֶל הַמַּעֲרָבִי, HaKotel HaMa'aravi, the western wall, often shortened to the Kotel or Kosel), known in the West as the Wailing Wall, and in Islam as the Buraq Wall (Arabic: حَائِط � ...

("Wailing Wall") in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

. The great stones would thus have "framed the memory of events in Warsaw in the iconographic figure of

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...

's holiest site".Young, James E. ''The Texture of Memory'', Yale 1993, p. 171 The

labradorite Labradorite (( Ca, Na)( Al, Si)4 O8) is a calcium-enriched feldspar mineral first identified in Labrador, Canada, which can display an iridescent effect (schiller). Labradorite is an intermediate to calcic member of the plagioclase series. It ...

stone used in parts of the monument comes from German supplies, ordered by Albert Speer in 1942 for planned Nazi German monuments. The western part of the monument shows a bronze group sculpture of insurgents - men, women and children, armed with guns and

Molotov cocktail A Molotov cocktail (among several other names – ''see other names'') is a hand thrown incendiary weapon constructed from a frangible container filled with flammable substances equipped with a fuse (typically a glass bottle filled with fla ...

s. The central standing figure of this frieze is that of

Mordechai Anielewicz Mordechai Anielewicz ( he, מרדכי אנילביץ'; 1919 – 8 May 1943) was the leader of the Jewish Fighting Organization ( pl, Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa, ŻOB), which led the Warsaw Ghetto uprising; the largest Jewish insurrection dur ...

(1919 – 8 May 1943), the leader of Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa (ŻOB; en, Jewish Combat Organization) during the uprising. 70th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 09

70th Anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 09

President Obama in Warsaw May 2011 5835906995 7251a8fc74 o

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

Commemoration-related events

The '' Warschauer Kniefall'' (German for "Warsaw

kneeling Kneeling is a basic human position where one or both knees touch the ground. Kneeling is defined as “to position the body so that one or both knees rest on the floor,” according to Merriam-Webster. Kneeling when only composed of one knee, and ...

") by

Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Ge ...

took place in front of the monument in 1970, when Brandt was the Chancellor of

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

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

References

Footnotes

Citations

External links

{{commons category, Monument of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Warsaw
Entry on the monument at sztuka.net
includes a gallery Warsaw Ghetto Monuments and memorials in Warsaw 1948 establishments in Poland 1948 sculptures Holocaust memorials in Poland