As part of #MGWonline, we invite you to listen to a fictionalized broadcast produced by the Education Department of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum. It explores the situation faced by one-third of Warsaw's population during World War II.
In November 1940, approximately four hundred thousand Polish Jews were resettled behind the wall marking the ghetto's borders. In July 1942, the so-called Grossaktion began, deporting the population to the Treblinka extermination camp. On the morning of April 19, 1943, as the Germans began the final liquidation of the ghetto and another wave of deportations, they were fired upon by groups of Jewish armed resistance – the Jewish Combat Organization (ŻOB) and the Jewish Military Union (ŻZW).
"We want the audience to see the ghetto residents not only as victims, but also as individuals who demonstrated extraordinary fortitude in extreme conditions. We want the tragedy and heroism of everyday life in the ghetto to become widely known," says author Ewa Bieniek-Małkowska.
The radio play "When the Warsaw Ghetto Was Created" depicts the attempt to rebuild pre-war organizational and social structures in the face of changing living conditions, a growing population, and a shrinking area. The authors address questions such as how ghetto residents coped with a sense of imprisonment and shifting social roles, with children becoming breadwinners. Jobs were scarce, and food became increasingly expensive. Hunger reigned, typhus, lice, and dysentery spread, and degradation and dehumanization ensued. Religious and cultural life, which built on the achievements of the period preceding World War II, provided an escape from everyday life. Scientific research, including on starvation disease, was conducted in the ghetto. Social initiatives were developed, and care was provided to the most vulnerable—children, artists, and displaced persons.
The recording is used in lessons conducted by the Education Department of the Municipal Water Management Authority.
