Footsteps of WWII · Poland
Ghetto Heroes Monument and POLIN Museum, Warsaw
Memorial · 19 Apr – 16 May 1943
The story
On 19 April 1943, when German forces entered the ghetto to complete its liquidation, Jewish fighters of the left-wing ŻOB under Mordechai Anielewicz and the right-wing ŻZW met them with pistols, grenades and petrol bombs. SS General Jürgen Stroop's troops burned the ghetto block by block. The ŻOB command bunker at Miła 18 fell on 8 May, and on 16 May Stroop blew up the Great Synagogue to mark the end. The monument by Nathan Rapoport, unveiled in 1948, stands where some of the first clashes took place. In 1970 West German Chancellor Willy Brandt knelt before it. The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews faces it.
What to look for
Rapoport's bronze relief of fighters set in dark stone, with a procession of victims on the back. The labradorite is said to have been ordered by Albert Speer for Nazi monuments. Across the square, POLIN's glass building traces a thousand years of Polish Jewish life, including the ghetto.
Plan your visit
Monument: open-air, always accessible, free. POLIN: closed Tuesdays; open 10:00–18:00, Saturday to 20:00; core exhibition free on Thursdays; last entry two hours before closing. Tickets at bilety.polin.pl. Check the website before you go.
Things change, so check opening times before you travel.
Nearby sites
- Umschlagplatz memorial, Warsaw · under 1 km
- Warsaw Rising Museum · 2 km
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