Varsavianist walk | “Small ghetto in the center of Warsaw”

From the north, the border was Stawki Street, Parysowski Square and Dzika Street. From the east, it seems to me, the exits via Bonifraterska, Zakroczymska, Nalewki, the exit of Senatorska into Teatralny Square, then the indentation in the form of a narrowing arrow to the corner of Chłodna and Żelazna, where there was a narrow isthmus connecting the large northern part, which was immediately named the large ghetto, with a small ghetto – the southern one. The small ghetto was bordered on the east by Marszałkowska Street and on the north by Chłodna Street, Mirowski Square and Żelaznej Bramy Square. The even numbers of the Chłodna section between Żelazna and Wronia belonged to the large ghetto and the odd numbers to the small ghetto.

– Henryk Makower, “Diary from the Warsaw Ghetto. October 1940 – January 1943,” pp. 8-9.

The Small Ghetto – First Class on the Extermination Train. The southern part of the Warsaw Ghetto, inhabited by wealthier people, prosperous townspeople and the intelligentsia. The seat of the Jewish Council was also located there. Within the so-called Little Ghetto there was also Sienna Street, considered one of the best and most elegant in the ghetto, where the Bersohn and Bauman Children’s Hospital was located – the destination seat of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum.

It was connected with the so-called big ghetto by pedestrian bridges. The most famous of them was located at Chłodna Street, which was in the “Aryan” part of the city. Photographs showing the Jewish population crossing a wooden bridge have become an integral part of the collective imagination of the Holocaust. The footbridge, which did not connect the two parts of the ghetto, became a symbol of the isolation and dehumanization of the Warsaw Jews. The small ghetto ceased to exist after the so-called Great Deportation Action in the Warsaw Ghetto.

We invite you to the sixth varsavian walk this year – “The small ghetto in the center of Warsaw”, which will take place on Sunday, November 21. We wil; gather at 12:00 in the courtyard of the former Bersohn and Bauman Hospital at 60 Sienna Street. The route will lead along Sienna Street, through Grzybowski, Próżna, Graniczna, Grzybowska and Krochmalna Streets to Chłodna. It will be led by the city guide Agnieszka Kuś. Participation in the event is free of charge.

See you soon!