Warszawa wielu kultur

Książka telefoniczna na rok 1939. Ze zbiorów R. Chwiszczuka.
A phone book from 1939. From R. Chwiszczuk’s collection.
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surrounding the Warsaw Ghetto were
built. During 20-25 October 1940, ethnic
Poles living in the designated area of
the Warsaw Ghetto were evicted and
replaced by about 140,000 Jews from
other areas of Warsaw. By the 15th November
1940 the Warsaw Ghetto had
been completely walled-off .
On 22 February to 15 September
1942, from the Square near Umschlagplatz
(Stawki Street), Jews were transported
in cattle freight wagons, to their
deaths at Treblinka. However, even
after the deportations, the Ghetto was
still home to 55,000 Jews of which
20,000 were illegal inhabitants.
From 18th January 1943, the deportations
abruptly resumed. However deportations
ceased when Jewish armed
units began to resist. Jewish fi ghters
had already harassed German units
for some time. On 19th April 1943, SS
Units entered the walled Ghetto and
the Uprising had started. Fighting concentrated
mainly in the northern areas
of the Ghetto, from Gęsia Street (today
Okopowa Street), to the northern outskirts,
as well as the streets of Nowolipki,
Karmelicka, Leszno, Żelazna
and Smocza. Fierce fi ghting lasted for
nearly a month. When an SS unit overran
a street, they systematically leveled
the buildings, brutally killing everyone
they found. The last of the Jewish fi ghters
escaped onto the Arian side, where
they were helped the Polish Socialist
Partisan group among others. They
would eventually take part in the failed
Warsaw Uprising a year later. On 16th
May the butcher of the Warsaw Ghetto,
Jürgen Stroop, instigated the destruction
of the Great Synagogue („Wielką
Synagogę”) on Tłomackie Street. The
Jewish District north of Leszno Street
(Solidarności Street today) was entirely
fl attened. In 1945 it was estimated that
in the Jewish Ghetto (present day Muranów)
lay three million m 3 of rubble.
On the 1st of January 1946, the
once thriving Warsaw Jewish community
of over 300,000 was reduced to
mere 18,000. During communist times
offi cial anti-Semitism varied depended
on the political climate. But in 1968 the
now infamous speech by Władysław
Gomółka, culminated in an anti-Semitic
witch-hunt, which drove many Jews
from Poland, some 20,000 in total.
In 1978, Izaak Baszewis Singer
(1902-1991) the Polish Jewish writer,
and one time resident of Warsaw, received
the Nobel Prize for literature; a
fi tting tribute for someone who through
his books kept the memory alive of the
once proud Jewish community in Warsaw
and Poland.
After the fi rst free Polish elections,
in 1989, Pinchas Menachem Joskowicz
became Poland’s Chief Rabbi, residing
in Warsaw. In 1997, Polish Jews were
granted restitution to Jewish property
once owned by Warsaw’s Jewish Religious
Community Organization (Gmina
Wyznaniowa Żydowska). The National
Jewish Organization has eight branches,
with 500 members. Its main Jewish Synagogue
is the Nożyks’ Jewish Orthodox
Synagogue on Twarda Street, Warsaw;
the only Synagogue in Warsaw that
survived devastation of World War II.