We are sharing a column by Dr. Martyna Grądzka-Rejak published in the November edition of the monthly Słowo Żydowskie on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the closing of the Warsaw Ghetto borders.
December 2, 2020
On October 2, 1940, just before Rosh Hashanah, Ludwig Fischer, governor of the Warsaw district, issued a decree establishing a Jewish residential district, or Jewish quarter. A map of the streets that were to be incorporated into the ghetto was attached to the document. Less than two weeks later, on Yom Kippur, the decision to create three residential districts in Warsaw was announced over loudspeakers: German, Polish, and Jewish. Poles were to vacate the streets and apartments designated for the ghetto, and Jews were to move to their designated area as quickly as possible. A month later, on November 16, the walled ghetto was sealed.
Typhus-threatened area
The Germans took the first steps toward establishing a ghetto in Warsaw as early as the autumn of 1939. Adam Czerniaków, chairman of the local Judenrat, noted in his diary on December 20th: " Rumors about Praga (ghetto) ." In January 1940, Waldemar Schön arrived in Warsaw. Before the war, he had collaborated with Hans Frank, among others. The General Government authorities entrusted him with the position of plenipotentiary for resettlement and the task of creating a ghetto in the city. Schön initially planned to relocate the Jewish community across the Vistula River and locate the ghetto in the aforementioned Praga district. For many reasons, including economic and logistical ones, this idea was not implemented. The focus was on the northern district, inhabited mostly by Jews. In March, the decision was made to build walls around what the Germans called the " Seuchensperrgebiet "—or " area threatened by epidemics ." Their construction, at the expense of the Jewish community, began in April 1940. The process lasted over two months.
The damage caused to the city by the events of September 1939, migration, population impoverishment, and food and water shortages led to outbreaks of typhus in Warsaw. The Germans exploited the fear of this disease, accusing the Jewish community of spreading it. This was their way of justifying the creation of a separate residential district for them. Bacteriologist Ludwik Hirszfeld addressed this issue in his memoirs: " The authorities wanted to isolate carriers of dangerous germs. People calling themselves doctors of medicine justified this thesis. Science had long ago abolished medieval quarantines not only as cruel but as pointless. Pointless? After all, the goal was not to eliminate epidemics, but to eliminate the Jews ." The wall, approximately 3 meters high and over 16 kilometers long, that divided the city was intended to provide adequate protection.
Changing borders
Rumors of the creation of a ghetto had been circulating in Warsaw since the first months of the war, but a decision issued by Fischer in early October 1940 finally confirmed them. The plan of streets within the ghetto and constituting its boundaries, attached to the decree, differed, however, from those designated for the " typhud threat zone " and published in August by the ghetto press, "Nowy Kurier Warszawski" and "Gazeta Żydowska." Among other things, the previously proposed area between Bankowy Square, Senatorska and Bielańska Streets, as well as part of the Saxon Garden, was excluded from the ghetto, and expanded to include the Jewish cemetery and the area around Okopowa Street. The walls previously built on these streets and squares (including those in the Old Town), which ultimately fell outside the ghetto boundaries, were demolished. Before the ghetto gates were closed, the boundaries were revised several times, and the streets and buildings marking the boundaries were moved. This was due, among other things, to the construction of new buildings. Economic and commercial reasons, for example, there was an industrial or manufacturing plant operating on a given street that couldn't be relocated; or logistical ones, for example, erecting a wall would have hindered access to various institutions, such as hospitals. Chaim Kapłan commented on this as follows: " Even after the official decree was published, in which the boundaries of the Jewish area were precisely delineated, changes were introduced the very next day. This is why thousands of Jewish families live in a state of panic, vacillating between hope and fear ." These changes, occurring almost overnight, deepened the already prevailing chaos. In his memoirs, Emanuel Ringelblum, a historian and chronicler of the ghetto, wrote about German furniture requisitions and bribes used to facilitate the moves: " Today they took the furniture [from the tenement houses] at Leszno Street 4, 6, and 8, and also ordered the apartments at Żelaznej Bramy Square 8 to be emptied […] Today, the eviction of Poles from some streets in the southern part of Warsaw also began : Poznańska Street, Wspólna Street. If Jews are given some cash, they give them a little more time and let them take everything. A terrifying anxiety gripped the Jewish population; no one is sure if they will sleep in their beds tomorrow ." The residents of the "disputed" streets did not know what to do and waited for binding decisions. Some even moved several times before the ghetto was sealed.
Cut off, hidden, walled in
Approximately 140 Jews and 113 Poles were forced to relocate. The city's streets were swarming with horse-drawn carts carrying furniture and parcels. On the sidewalks, one could frequently encounter people pushing carts—carts for goods and even children—filled with their belongings. Those without carts carried small household appliances, clothing, books, and toys in bundles. Ghetto apartments were packed to the limit, with many often crammed with several families into a small space, leaving insufficient space to accommodate all their belongings. Efforts were made to sell those items that, for various reasons, could not be taken with them, such as musical instruments. The local press was full of advertisements for goods to buy, sell, or exchange. More valuable items were left for safekeeping with friends.
The decision to establish a ghetto, though somewhat expected, came as a surprise to many. Having to move there with their loved ones, leaving behind their current apartment and surroundings, without knowing how long this situation might last, was an extremely difficult moment. Initially, it was unclear to the residents whether the ghetto would be open or closed. Over time, the fact that they would be walled in within a mere 400 hectares became increasingly clear. By the end of 1940, the Warsaw ghetto contained nearly 395 people: women, men, and children, of various social backgrounds, education, professions, ages, wealth, religious beliefs, and so on. They were cut off from the rest of the city, crowded into a small area, and at the mercy of the German occupiers.
On November 16, 1940, the gates of the Warsaw Ghetto were closed. From then on, any attempt to leave or enter the ghetto without a pass was punishable by law. Ludwik Hirszfeld recalled: " A guard stood at the entrances [to the 22 ghetto gates] , the word 'wacha' in the local dialect." It consists of a few armed Germans, looking at the crowd with contempt, Polish policemen, and obliging Jewish policemen, who, if they don't behave efficiently enough, get punched in the face . Being confined to the ghetto evoked mixed emotions among its inhabitants. Some believed that although their living conditions would worsen and they would have to function cut off from their former home and friends, they would still live there relatively freely. Others treated the ghetto as a kind of center where the level of integration of the Jewish community would increase. Some believed that, hidden behind these walls, invisible, far from the turmoil of war, they would survive the occupation more safely. Liberation, however, was expected in the coming months; who could have predicted that the war would last another four long years? Mery Berg, a teenager at the time, recalled in her diary: " Some say it's better for us, because the Germans won't dare commit such open crimes, and besides, we'll be protected from attacks by Polish hooligans ." With the passage of time, increasing difficulties and the constant deterioration of living standards, the ghetto and the walls surrounding it became synonymous with oppression for them, and the feeling of being "walled in" became a part of their everyday lives.
Stanisław Różycki, a keen observer of ghetto life, commented in his account on the conditions there and their impact on the lives of its inhabitants: " Faith did not collapse on the threshold of hell, upon crossing the brutally crafted walls. […] I am looking for parks, gardens, squares. There are none, and you would look in vain for a trace of green space, because everything has been deliberately excluded, segregated, because the lousy and dirty Jews do not need oxygen, ozone, air, health, rest, or conditions for children. So it stinks here, blowing with a suspicious stench and a sickly odor ." Many ghetto residents dreamed of moving freely, of returning to their former lifestyle, to the former world. Halina Aszkenazy-Engelhard, a teenage resident of the ghetto, expressed this longing for freedom: " When I passed by the ever-growing ghetto walls and watched the birds flying above them, I envied them and dreamed of transforming into one of them, of flying through those terrible walls and fleeing far away, so far away that there would be neither Germans, nor typhus, nor the terrible, starving faces of the ghetto. […] Freedom! Give us back our freedom – my heart seemed to scream ." As the weeks and months passed, the desire to escape the "tomb," as the ghetto was often perceived, grew. However, change did not come, and so the lives of those gathered in the ghetto centered around the walls. They passed by, stopped, tried to look at the world on the other side, and looked for opportunities to smuggle in much-needed food. However, what was happening outside the walls – beyond this border between two worlds – became increasingly distant, hazy and alien.
Dr. Martyna Grądzka-Rejak
Photo: "The Jewish Word"
