1July Warsaw Uprising Museum, Umschlagplatz, 18 Milas Street, Memorial to the Heroes of the Ghetto

.At 2:00 we met and headed over to the Museum that remembers the Warsaw Uprising of August and September of 1944. We learned what an informed and accomplished guide Marcellina is going to be. She gives us Polish language lessons. She tells us about the Polish football team. She explains the Polish health  care system. But most of all, she unpacks the complicated and sad history of Poland's Jewry.

On the way, we  passed the orphanage and monument to Janush Koczak. It is still an orphanage today.

The museum is huge and although a new building, it looks war torn inside. It was built over the ruins of  the power station for the streetcars.    And for those of us who don't know  history, it seemed confusing and so very complex but that may have been part of the reality. 

The exhibits were numbered and we tried to follow the numbers but it is so big that we needed more than two hours. The third floor contains a library and reading room so it must be an excellent research center.

The museum is on the right. That is the ticket office in front.

Plaques help explain.

This exhibit shows the part that children played in the Resistance

Interactive displays make history come alive. Visitors can see what is happening behind brick and concrete walls by looking through holes. They can hear sounds from holes in the walls. Calendar pages note specific events.

There are displays of weapons with explanation by Resistance Fighters.

This exhibit demonstrated the Soviet impact in eastern Poland.

The museum cafe was charming.

This wall displays a part of a collection of arm bands worn by Resistance Fighters given to museum.

The donors are named.

The dead fighters are remembered.

There are films to watch.

The museum is evocative and dramatic--that plane may be the Bomber Liberator B-24J.

We left and went over to the Umschlagplatz. This  memorial remembers the place where Jews were rounded up and taken to Treblinka. The shape is similar to a cable car. 

Wladyslaw Szpilman ( hero in The Pianist) was here and during the loading of a train, a policeman recognized him and picked him out of the crowd thus saving him from an early death.

The rounded part over the entrance has the shape of a Matzevah, a Jewish gravestone and shows broken trees  symbolizing broken lives.

The most popular Jewish names line one wall to remember the many who died.

We are close to the Warsaw Ghetto and we walk in the area seeing memorials along the way.

This plaque remembers Janusz Korczak who led his orphans to Umschlagplatz who were sent to Treblinka. There are stories about the march-- that the children were dressed up and that they were singing. There is a poem written  as well as an Israeli song about this sad event.

We then visited 18 Milas Street (maybe you know Leon Uris's 18 Milas?) which was the headquarters of the Jewish Combat Organization. When the headquarters were surrounded by the Nazis, the leaders of the Ghetto Uprising killed themselves rather than surrender to the Nazis.

This is actually the tomb of these heroes. 

Here is the stone up close showing many smaller stones added by visitors. Ramek, Marcella's small son, plays in the background.

Another stone commemorates these fighters. 

Leah reminds us how important stones are to grieving in Judaism.

A monument to the Heroes of the Ghetto--an ironic touch as the stone was bought by Nazis for a monument to celebrate the German Victory  in WWII.

 The back of the monument shows the suffering of so many--soldiers with bayonets are in the background.

 

Close by is a statue of Jan Karski who gave eye witness reports of the Warsaw ghetto and Belzec, the Jewish death camp, to London officials. His autobiography Story of a Secret State is under Kevin's elbow.

This building will host Jewish History in Poland. Designed by a Finnish architect, the building is finished but empty now and will open when exhibits are put in. The front opening represents the parting of the Red Sea. The small tiles are made of glass.

An earlier monument to the Heroes. The shape is that of the sewer holes where many hid.

The palm leaf symbolizes suffering.

This monument remembers a Polish organization Zegota that was part of the Polish underground resistance which helped imprisoned and persecuted Jews.

Hopefully I will be able to post this tomorrow am, if wonky Internet is working. There are errors which I will have to correct at some time. There is so much  to take in.