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1. ALEJE JEROZOLIMSKIE
Jews came to Warsaw in the second half of the 14th century, but had been expelled
from the city by 1483. Following the deaths of the last Dukes of Mazovia and the cession
of Mazovia to the Crown, King Zygmunt the Old issued a privilege for Warsaw and Mazovia
dated 1527 "de non tolerandis Judaeis". Only in 1768 were they again
allowed to settle in the region, and then only away from the capital itself. It was not
long before a Jewish Community had appeared in what was later to become Warsaw's Praga
district. Jews also settled beyond the city limits in private townships known as jurydyki
(jurisdictions). It was beyond the turnpikes of Warsaw, in the area of today's Place
Zawiszy, that Józef Potocki founded a settlement forJews knows as New Jerusalem in 1774.
This was closed down after just two years, but the road leading from it to the Vistula
kept the name Jerusalem Road (later Avenue), i.e. Aleje Jerozolimskie.
Surviving to this day between Grzybowski Square and Marszałkowska Street (if now in
a deplorable state) are the four tenement-houses at numbers 7, 9, 12 and 14, which
constitute one of the very few surviving fragments of "Jewish Warsaw". Prior to
the outbreak of World War II, the city had some 350 000 Jews - accounting for 30% of the
city's population and thereby constituting the largest Jewish community in pre-War Europe.
The Jewish RenaissanceFoundation is now drawing up a project for the restoration of these
buildings.
3. THE YIDDISH THEATRE at No. 12/16 Grzybowski Sq.
Building erected in 1969 in accordance with a design by B. Pniewski and K.
Jotkiewicz. housing, among other things, the Ester Rachel Kamińska State Yiddish Theatre
putting on plays in Yiddish (tel. 620-6281), the office of the Board and Warsaw of
the Jewish Social and Cultural Society - TSKŻ - in Poland (620-0554), the TSKŻ
Club, the editorial office of the Polish-Yiddish bilingual journal "The Jewish
World" Słowo Żydowskie [ Dos Jidisze Wort ] (tel. 620-0549), the
office of the American-Polish-Israeli "Shalom" Foundation (620-3036) and
The office of the Jewish Agency [Sokhnut].
4. THE ZELMAN AND RYWKA NOŻYK SYNAGOGUE at No. 6 Twarda St.
Erected in the years 1898-1902 as a private house of prayer for the Nożyks.
Subsequently handed over to the Warsaw Orthodox Jewish Community. Of the several hundred
houses of prayer existing in Warsaw before the War, this is the only one to have survived.
It is still in daily use. In the 1970s, a building housing the office of the Warsaw Jewish
Community and Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland was built on the east side
of the Synagogue. The Synagogue may be visited in the afternoons on days other than
Saturday. Entry free. Tel. 620-4324
5. THE COMMUNITY HOUSE at No. 6 Twarda St.
Onethe few surviving pre-War buildings in the street. Remaining in the first
staircase are fragments of an inscription in Polish, Hebrew and Yiddish providing
information on the health centre existing here before the War and during the times of the
Ghetto. The middle staircase features recovered documents of the families living in this
building in the Ghetto up to the time of their deportation in July 1942. Located here
today are, among other things, the canteen of the Jewish Community, the Bejtejnu Senior
Citizens' Club and Association of Hidden Children of the Holocaust (tel. 620-8245),
the Association of Jewish War Veterans and Victims of Persecution during WWII (tel.
620-6211), the Ronalds Lauder Foundation (tel. 620-3496), its Preschool and its
Tourist Information Centre (tel. 652-2150), the editorial office of the Midrasz
monthly magazine (tel. 654-3155), the "Our roots" Travel Office (tel.
620-0556), Shalom Travel (tel. 652-2804), and the Polish Union of Jewish
Students (tel. 652-2200).
6. FRAGMENTS OF THE GHETTO WALL at No. 55 Sienna St.
On November 15th, 1940, work began on the enclosure of Ghetto behind a
three-metrehigh wall. 500 000 Jews were improsed in an area of 403 ha. Fragments of the
Ghetto walls have survived in different places, for example in the courtyard of this
building on Sienna St. The former walls dividing the properties were raised to a height of
3,5 m, but after a year the limits of the Ghetto and wall were shifted northwards to run
along the middle of Sienna St.
7. THE BERSON AND BAUMAN CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL
at No. 60 Sienna St./No. 55
Śliska St. (now Children of
Warsaw)
The hospital was built for Jewish children in the year 1876-1878, being funded by Majer Berson and his daughter Paulina Bauman. Janusz Korczak worked there before World War I, while the director between the Wars and at the begining of WWII was Dr Anna Braude-Heller (who died during the Ghetto Uprising in 1943). The Warsaw University Children's Clinic was here in the aftermath of the liquidation of the Small Ghetto in September 1942, up to the time of the Warsaw Uprising. The rebuilt post-War building housed the offices of the Central Committee of Jews in Poland until 1952, when State commandeered the building and converted it into the City Hospital for children with infectious diseases.
8. THE HOUSE OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES at No. 5 Żelazna St.
The yard of this residential block tetains a framgment
of the house belonging to Izaak Majer Alter , the Gerer Rebbe ,
after 1864 .Alter founded a Yeshiva in the building and the
Torah talmud were studies there under his tutelage.Plans for the future
include an appropriate plaque and prayer room here.
Surviving on the small stretch of the eastern side of
the street are the three buildings at Nos.10,12 and 14
which stood within the Ghetto.The renowned poet Władysław Szlendel
lived in the annex of No.11 on the western side of the
street formed the Ghetto wall and information on this is to be plaque on
the surviving fragment by the gateway.
10. THE HOUSE at No. 20 Chłodna Street.
From autumn 1941 onwards, the whole of Chłodna Street was
excluded from the Ghetto and divided into two parts.The
"Aryan" street was seperated from the houses on the section
between Żelazna and Ciepła Streets by a three -metre
wall..Until the end of 1941, the surviving building at No.20 was
inhabited by Adam Czerniakov, the president of the Jewish Council
in the Ghetto(Judenrat).Czerniakov committed suicide on July 23rd,1942,
the day after the deporations to the Treblinka Death Camp
began.It was near this house that a wooden bridge allowing Jews to cross
from the Small to Large Ghettos was build at the beginning of
1942.
11. THE JANUSZ KORCZAK
ORPHANAGE at No. 92 Krochmalna Street.
(now the Children's Home at No. 6
Jaktorowska Street)
The years 1911-1913 saw the "Pomoc dla sierot"
("Help for Orphans") Society build a two-storey house for Jewish orphans
on what was then the edge of the city. The design was by Henryk Stifelman.Its
the director from the start was the outstanding pedagogue,writer and
physician Dr Janusz Korczak (Henryk Goldszmit).Upon the establishment
of the Ghetto,the Orphanage was moved to 33 Chłodna Street
and later to 9 Śliska Street on what is today the site of
the Palace of Culture and Science.It was from here on August 6th,1942 that
the residents were taken first to the Umschlagplatz and then on to
the Extermination Camp in Treblinka. A bust of Korczak by the
outstanding sculptor X.Dunikowski was placed in front of the building
in 1979.
12. THE ORTHODOX HOSPITAL
in Czyste,now the Wolski Hospital at No.17
Kasprzaka St.
Build in 1902 for Jewish patients and redeveloped in the inter-War
period,the Hospital could boast 1174 beds in 6 wings.Finding itself beyond
the limits of the Ghetto once that had been established, the
Hospital was forced to move its various wards to different areas
inside.Its buildings in turn came to house the Holy Spirit Hospital, as
well as the City Hospital and Mother and Child Institute in the past-War period.
13. THE HOME FOR ABANDONED JEWISH
CHILDREN at No.26 Płocka St. (Now the
Tuberculosis Institute)
The Home for abandoned Jewish Children was build in the
years 1927-1933,designed by architect Maurycy Grodzieński and by Henryk
Stifeman after Grodzieński's death.It was designed to give a home
to 270 children,but financial difficulties forced it to begin closing after
only 2 years.As a result some 250 children moved to
No.125 Leszno Street (now St.Lazarus's Hospital) and the original building was
adapted for the treatment of those suffering from tuberculosis.
14. THE OLD PEOPLE's HOME (
Moszaw Zkejnim) , formely at No.9 Górczewska
Street. Present address: 10
Hipolita Wawelberga Street)
A building raised in 1928 and designed by Henryk Stifelman was intended to house elderly Jews from families of the inteligentsia.The building,reconstructed by the Ronald S.Lauder Foudation , is now home to the Lauder_Marasha (hebr.heritage) Private Middle and Primary School.
15. THE MONUMENT TO THE MEMORY OF JEWS AND POLES on Gibalskiego St.
This work of T. Szumielewicz and M.Martens was funded by the City
of Warsaw and Nissenbaum Family Foudation in 1988 on the site of
the pre-War playing fields of the Skra sports club -the site of a mass
grave for more than 7000 Jews killed in the Ghetto and Poles
shot during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.
16. THE JEWISH CEMETERY at No. 49\51 Okopowa St.
Founded in 1806, this one of the few still-active Jewish
cemeteries in Poland.
It retains about 250,000 gravestones and other monuments and is the resting
place of individuals renowned in the histories of the Jewish nation
and of Warsaw and Poland.
Besides rabbis like Szlomo Lipszyc ( died 1839),Ber Meisels(1870)
,Abraham Perlmutter(1930) , or rabbinical leaders including the Brisker Rebe (1918)
and Medrzicer Rebe (1912),here there also lie the Jewish writers Icchak
Lejb Perec (died 1915),Szlomo An-ski(1920) and Julian Stryjkowski (1996), the
actress Ester Kamińska (1925) and the creator of Esperanto
Ludwik Zamenhof (1917) .There are also graves of Henryk Wohl(died
1907) ,the Treasurer of the National Government during the January
Uprising of 1863 , and of Feliks Perl (died 1927) , the co-founder of
the Polish Socialist Party and PPS.The anonymous mass graves of
residents of the Ghetto stand beside the known resting places of Professor Majer
Bałaban(died 1942) and of the chairman of the Judenrat Adam Czerniakov
(also died 1942).The "Gęsia" Foudation (tel: 838-26-22) has
its headquarters here.
17. No. 34 ANIELEWICZA St.
The Nazis established a concentarion camp amidst the ruins
of the Ghetto in September 1943.Imprisoned here were around 5000
Jews brought from Auschwitz and originating mainly in such countries as
Greece,France and Hungary.They worked on the Ghetto site,demolishing the
burned houses and sorting bricks and coloured metals. The camp was
largely cleared on Luly 29th,1944 ,leaving only 348 inmates.These were
liberated on August 5th,1944,in the course of the Warsaw Uprising
,by the "Zośka" Scout Batallion of the Home Army's
"Radosław" unit.Many of the prisoners fought and died
in the Warsaw Uprising.The wall of the block standing here
bears a plaque in Polish and Hebrew.
18. UMSCHLAGPLATZ on Stawki St.
This place from which transports of Ghetto Jews to the Death Camp
at Treblinka commenced on July 22nd,1942 , was chosen as the side
for the monument by Hanna Szmalenberg and Władysław Klamerus erected
in 1988.The name means "Trans-shipment Square" in German and
five to six thousand people a day were sent from here to their deaths
so that, as the inscription reads:Tą droga cierpienia i śmierci
w latch 1940-1943 z utworzonego w Warszawie getta przeszło
do hitlerowskich obozów zagłady ponad 300 000 Żydów", Along
this route of suffering and death,passed more than 300 000 Jews passed
from the Ghetto established in Warsaw to the Nazi Extermination
Camps between the years 1940 and 1943" Inscribed on
the wall are some 448 first names from Abel to Żanna symbolising
the c.450 000 Jews imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto.In turn
,to be read on the wall of the building adjacent to the
Monument in Polish,Yiddish and Hebrew is verse 18 from Job 16 reading
"Ziemio, nie kryj mojej krwi,iżby mój krzyk nie
ustawał",O earth ,cover not thou my blood,and let my cry never be laid
to rest".!
19. THE ROUTE RECALLING THE MARTYRDOM
AND STRUGGLE OF THE JEWS
1940-1943.
The route is designated by blocks of black syenite on which are
inscribed events and the names of individuals active in the Ghetto.It runs between
the Umschlagplatz and the Monument of the Heroes of the Ghetto,via
the site of the ŻOB (Jewish Fighting Organisation) command bunker.The markers
honour the memory of poet I.Kacenelson, educator J.Korczak ,Rabbi I.
Nissenbaum,Liaison Officer of the ŻOB F. Płotnicka,commander of the Jewish
Military Union or ŻZW P.Frenkel , member of Poalej Syjon
M.Majerowicz,commander of the ŻOB M.Anielewicz,member of Haszomer Hacair A.Wilner,
activists of the Bund (the Jewish Socialist Alliance) S.Zygielbojm and
M.Klepfisz ,PPR activist J.Lewartowski and historian E. Ringelblum.The
Route,disigned by Zb.Gąsior,,S.Jankowski "Agaton" and M.Moderau ,was out in
1988.
20. THE BUNKER at No.18 Miła St.
On the corner of what are now Dubois and Miła Streets is a
mound in the place where a bunker housing the headquartes of the
Jewish Fighting Organisation (ŻOB) once stood.
When the bunker was discovered on May
8th,1943,the majority of those within -led by Mordechaj
Anielewicz(1919-1943) and Arie Wilner (1917-1943)-committed suicide.
21. THE MONUMENT OF THE HEROES OF THE GHETTO on Zamenhofa St.
The Monument ,which is the work of Natan Rappaport,was unveiled
in the ruins of the Ghetto on April 19th,1948 - the fifth
anniversary of the start of the Ghetto Uprising.A sculpture symbolising
the struggle is to be found on the west
site,and a bas -relief showing the martydom of the Jewish
people on the east. The facing stone of Swidish labradorite was originally
ordered by the Nazis for a monument to the victory of the Third Reich's ,
and it was purchased after the War by Jewish organisations.Standing
nearby is on older monument from 1946 that is the work of architect Leon
Suzin.A slab of red sandstone resembling a sewer manhole cover bears on
inscription in Polish,Yiddish and Hebrew reading "Tym , którzy polegli w
bezprzykładnej braterskiej walce o godność i wolność narodu
żydowskiego,o wolną Polskę, o wyzwolenie człowieka .Żydzi
Polscy."
"To those who fell in the unparalleled and heroic struggle for
the dignity and freedom of the Jewish Nation,for a free Poland and
for the liberation of humankind.From Polish Jews"(the
remnants of Polish Jewry).
22. THE JEWISH LIBRARY
BUILDING ( now the Jewish Historical Institute)
at No. 3/5 Tłomackie St.
A building erected in the years 1928-1936 ,according to a desing by Edward Eber for
the library of the Great Synagogue on Tłomackie St.(designed by L.Marconi in 1878
and demolished May 16th,1943 when the Nazis considered that the uprising in the
Ghetto had been crushed). Also housed here were the Institute of Judaic
Sciences , in which academics of such standing as Majer Bałaban,Mojżesz
Schorr and Ignacy Schiper lectured.It fell within the Ghetto area during
the War and held the office of the Jewish Self-Help
Organisation.
Among those working here was Emanuel Ringelblum,who founded the underground
archive of the Ghetto.After post-War reconstruction,the building
came to house the Jewish Historical Institute in 1947,with the
recovered Ringelblum Archive among its proudest possessions.These also include extensive
collections af artwork,as well as library and photographic archives.The so-called
"Blue Tower" was build opposite , on the site of the destroyed
Synagogue.The ground floor leading onto Tłomackie St. holds a gallery with
the Institute's temporary exhibitions. Items from the art collections are on display
as part of the permanent exhibitions: the Warsaw Ghetto and
the Gallery of the Jewish Art. (Open Mon,Tues,Wen,Fri, 8
a.m-4 p.m , Thurs. 10 a.m-6 p.m.) Entry charge. Tel.827-9221.
Bookshop with publications on Jewish Themes.Genealogical information available from the
Lauder Foundation (Room 10).
23. THE DORMITORY at No. 7 Sierakowskiego St. (now the Police Hotel).
On the initiative of Jewish student and social
organisations, a Jewish Hall of Residence was build in 1926
for some 300 students.The disign by Henryk Stifelman
featured accomodation , as well as lecture rooms , reading rooms,etc.
Among the students here was the future Prime Minister of Israel and winner of
the Nobel Peace Prize Menachem Begin.
24. No. 28 JAGIELOŃSKA St. (now the Baj Puppet Theatre).
A plaque remaining in this architectrally -interesting
modernist building by Henryk Stifelman and Stanisław Weis from
the years 1911-1914 bears the inscription,in Polish:"Gmach
Wychowawczy Warszawskiej Gminy Starozakonnych im. Michała Bergsona (the
Michał Bergson Education Building of the Warsaw Jewish
Community).The building housed a school,nursery and
poor-house.After the War,it was for a while home to the Regional
Committee of Jews in Poland,before becoming the puppet theatre and
nursery school from 1953 onwards.
25. THE MIKVAH (RITUAL BATHS) at No.31 Ks.Kłopotowskiego St.
The place where today's Jagielońska and Kłopotowskiego Streets
meet was,from the end of the 18th century,the centre of
the Jewish Community in Praga district.A house of prayer erected
by Szmul Zbytkower was located here as well a round walled synagogue from 1836
by Józef Lessel (demolished after the War , in the 1950s).All
that remains is the 19th century building of the Mykwa (ritual
Jewish bath-house),which was rebuild by Naum Hornstein at the beginning of
the 20th century.After the War,the offices of the Cenral Committee of Jews in
Poland were located here ,later a nursery school and after 1991 a High School.
The oldest residential buildings in Praga district,put
up in 1818 by Rotblit.Its annex held Three of the Jewish houses of
prayer known as sztiblach.After the War,it was converted into
warehouses,two of which were recently found to contain fragments of pictures
presenting the signs of the zodiac, the Wailing Wall and the Tomb
of Rachel.One of the walls has an inscription stating that the painting was
done in 1934,sponsored by sons od Dawid Grinsztajn.
IT CAN BE CONDUCTED TOUR
THROUGH THE HISTORICAL SITES OF JEWISH WARSAW. MAKE THE
BOOKING BY INTERNET FOR IT.
