Warsaw: Memorials

Warsaw is full of memorials – some as small as  aplaque on a wall and others more significant.  Many are in honor of those who died in the Warsaw Uprising.  I’m sorry to say I didn’t know anything about until my visit.  The Uprising was a two month period near the end of World War II when the Polish people in Warsaw fought back and tried to drive out the German Army.  They were severely outmatched though (especially when the Uprising angered the Germans and they responded by sending more forces to Warsaw) and were not successful.  Many thousands were killed in the fighting – military and civilians.  Also, it was in anger of the Uprising that Hitler ordered for Warsaw to be completely destroyed.  This appeared to be the most significant event of the War for those in Warsaw and is a particular point of national pride.   

 A museum opened several years ago dedicated to the Uprising.  No pictures inside, but here is the building.  This was a great museum and FULL of artifacts and details about the Uprising.

 

Here is the Little Insurgent Monument to the children who took part in the Uprising.  Many scouts actively fought the Germans and more served as postal carriers during the 5 years that Germans occupied Warsaw.

 

Warsaw’s Jewish population was completely destroyed during the War.  Warsaw is best known for the Ghetto that Jews were forced to live in for an extended period of time before they were sent to concentration camps.  There is one very small section of the Ghetto Wall still standing in Warsaw. 

 

The last memorial I saw was called “I can still see their faces.”  It’s a block of tenement buildings that are still standing from before the war (one of very few left in all of Warsaw).  A Jewish woman made a request in the late 1990s for people to send photographs of people who had resided in the area and were killed during the War.  Some of those photos were mounted on the outside of these buildings.  Unfortunately the buildings are scheduled to be demolished in the next few months, so the memorial will end at that time.