Traces of the Warsaw Ghetto

There are things we wish we could forget. And there are things we have no right to forget.

In 55 Sienna Street, in contrast to the splendor of the Intercontinental Hotel, there is a silent witness to history – the wall of the Warsaw Ghetto, which separated the Aryan world from hell.

At 14 Waliców Street there is a tenement house which was located within the ghetto borders and was home to Władysław Szlengel, the poet of the Warsaw ghetto, who had “a window to the other side”.

Opposite the tenement house there is a ghetto wall – which still remembers the touch of those who no longer exist.

On Chłodna Street, there is no longer a bridge of sighs connecting the big and small ghettos – there is only memory. The bridge, a symbol of connection, was a symbol of the city’s division during the occupation.

Passing POLIN (Museum of the History of Polish Jews), we come to Umschlagplatz – the place from which, from July 22, 1942, transports of Jews to the Treblinka extermination camp departed.