Fragment of ghetto wall

Fragment of ghetto wall Review

In the courtyard of this building on Sienna Street, through the archway on the left, and just a little farther east, on Zlota Street, are the only two surviving fragments of the infamous wall built by the Nazis to close off the Warsaw Ghetto in November 1940. Warsaw's was the largest Jewish ghetto established by the Germans during World War II. Between 300,000 and 400,000 people perished during the three years of its existence, from starvation, diseases (mostly typhoid), and deportation to Nazi death caps. It was the scene of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, led by Mordechaj Anielewicz, who died there at the age of 24. Among the hostages of history in the Warsaw Ghetto we find such memorable figures as Wladyslaw Szpilman, "The Pianist" from Polanski's movie, and Doctor Janusz Korczak, a pediatrician, pedagogue, and writer who ran an orphanage for Jewish children—who decided to accompany them all the way to the gas chambers of Treblinka. A tourist and cultural information kiosk can be found in the courtyard between Zlota 60 and Sienna 55; it's open only on weekdays.