Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The former Jewish Ghetto lies to the north of the city center, just to the west of
the Old Town. Most of the ghetto, which in the early years of World War II held some
400,000 Jews, was destroyed in the war, and walking around today you'll find few
clues to its former role. There are plans to build a Jewish cultural center and museum
here, but those are still some years away. For now, the main sights are an evocative
Monument to the Ghetto Heroes (ul. Zamenhofe), which recalls the heroic Jewish
uprising in 1943, and a concrete-bunker-type memorial at the “ Umschlagplatz” (ul.
Stawki near the corner with ul. Dzika), the place where Jews were rounded up for train
transports to the Treblinka extermination camp in the east of the country.
As in Kraków, L ód 3 , and other Polish cities, the tragedy of the Jews here is one of
the most poignant stories of the war. Here in Warsaw, the Germans first started round-
ing up the city's enormous Jewish population toward the end of 1940. The ghetto's
population swelled to some 400,000 to 450,000 residents and conditions were appalling.
An elaborate system of gates and staircases was built to allow Jews inside to move
within the ghetto, but no one was permitted to enter or leave. The first deportations
and mass killings began about a year later, at the end of 1941. The Jews rebelled in
1943 as news of the gas chambers reached the ghetto and the residents realized they
had no choice but to fight. The heroic rebellion, the “first” Warsaw uprising, not to
be confused with the general Warsaw uprising a year later, was brutally put down by
the Germans. The ghetto was liquidated shortly thereafter, and what remained was
destroyed in the general uprising the next year. Nearly all of the city's Jews were killed
in the uprising or the extermination camps, and today only around 5,000 Jews remain
in Warsaw. Roman Pola ^ ski's Oscar-winning film, The Pianist, recounts the story of
the ghetto through the eyes of W l adys l aw Szpilman, an accomplished piano player
and one of the ghetto's best-known residents. Szpilman eventually escaped during a
transport to the concentration camp and survived the war. He even returned to live
out his life in Warsaw.
In addition to the major sights listed below, there are smaller museums to suit every
interest, including, among others, one dedicated to Polish Romantic poet Adam Mick-
iewicz (Rynek Starego Miasta; & 022/831-76-91 ), to composer Frederyk Chopin
(Okólnik 1; & 022/827-54-71 ), and to the horrific Katy ^ massacre in which an entire
generation of Polish army officers—some 20,000 in all—were shot and killed by the
Soviet Red Army in the Katy ^ woods (ul. Powsi ^ ska 13; & 022/842-66-11 ).
Royal Castle (Zamek Królewski) The original residence of Polish kings and
dating from the 14th and later the seat of the Polish parliament, the castle was com-
pletely destroyed in the Warsaw uprising and its aftermath. What you see today is a
painstaking reconstruction that was finished only in 1984. Two tours are offered:
“Route I” and “Route II.” Of the two, the second is more interesting, passing through
the regal apartments of Poland's last monarch, King Stanis l aw August Poniatowski,
and to the Canaletto room, where the famed cityscapes of Warsaw by the Italian
painter Bernardo Bellotto hang. These paintings, and others not on display, were of
extreme value in rebuilding the Old Town from scratch after the war. The tour ends
in the lavish ballroom, the largest room in the castle.
Pl. Zamkovy 4. & 022/657-21-70. Tues-Sat 10am-6pm; Sun-Mon 11am-6pm Regular ticket for Route 1 is 10 zl
($3.30/£1.70) and Route II is 18 zl ($6/£3). (Sun free admission).
The Palace of Culture and Science (Palac Kultury i Nauki) Warsaw's land-
mark tower is a building many residents would like to see knocked down. The 1950s
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