The History of Sienna Street – the Varsavianist Stroll

The Warsaw Ghetto Museum begins a monthly cycle of educational Varsavianist strolls. The first one will be organized on 9 June – along Sienna Street.

In pre-war Warsaw, Sienna was one of the southernmost streets. It joined together the poor, workers’ Wola district and the wealthy city center – Śródmieście. It was on Sienna Street where the building of the Bersohn and Bauman Children’s Hospital built in 1878, which survived the horrors of war and still stands, the house of the Society of Mutual Help of Commercial and Industrial Workers, the Cooperative and Commercial School of the Cooperative Education Society, and the “Trianon” picture house were located. During the Nazi occupation, Sienna Street became one of the most sought-after addresses of the so-called “small ghetto”. It was here where the Orphans’ Home, founded by Stefania Wilczyńska and Janusz Korczak, was last located.

The history of Sienna Street and the people connected with it – among others the women physicians associated with the Bersohn and Bauman Children’s Hospital in the Warsaw ghetto: Anna Braude-Heller and Adina Blady-Szwajger as well as Janusz Korczak who worked in the Hospital in the years 1905-1912 – will be told by an employee of the Education Department of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum and Warsaw guide – Jagna Kofta. Dr. Halina Postek and Dr. Wiesława Młynarczyk from the Education Department of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum will also participate in the Varsavianist Stroll.

At 60 Sienna Street, on the Hospital’s fence there are boards of the open air “Postcards from our Neighborhood. The History of Sienna and Śliska Streets” exhibition which was opened on 14 May.

The assembly point of the Stroll’s participants is the Palace of Culture and Science from the side of Teatr Studio – June 9th at noon.

Anna Kilian