Monument to the Ghetto Heroes
Why is it significant?
Step onto the broad stone plaza and look up at the eleven-metre wall of dark labrador granite: muscular bronze figures surge from the rough-hewn stone with rifles, grenades and clenched fists.
Key Facts
| Place | Monument to the Ghetto Heroes |
|---|---|
| Address | ul. Ludwika Zamenhofa, 00-153 Warszawa, Poland |
| Geo Coordinates | 52.24970, 20.99420 |
| Part of Walk | Lost World of Muranów: The Warsaw Ghetto, Resistance and Memory |
| Generated | Generated |
Step onto the broad stone plaza and look up at the eleven-metre wall of dark labrador granite: muscular bronze figures surge from the rough-hewn stone with rifles, grenades and clenched fists. This is Nathan Rapoport's Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, unveiled on 19 April 1948, on the fifth anniversary of the uprising. When it was dedicated, not a single new house stood here... only an ocean of crushed brick stretching to the horizon.
The stone beneath the bronze tells an extraordinary story of historical justice. The massive blocks of dark green Swedish granite had been ordered in 1942 by Albert Speer, Hitler's chief architect, destined for victory arches and Nazi monuments planned for Berlin. Following Germany's defeat, the Jewish community acquired the quarry blocks from a warehouse in Szczecin. The very stone intended to glorify Hitler's empire was carved into an eternal memorial for the people he vowed to destroy.
Walk around to the back of the monument, for it is deliberately designed with two opposing faces. On the front, you see the combat: heroic youth led by Mordechaj Anielewicz with a grenade, a young mother holding a baby, and fallen comrades at their feet. On the rear, a shallow stone relief shows the March to Extermination: frail elderly men in prayer shawls, weeping women and children with bowed heads shuffling into the dark.
In the paving stones beneath your feet, look for a small brass plaque marking the original smaller 1946 memorial designed by Leon Suzin, a simple circular stone disc. Rapoport's figures became the definitive image of Jewish resistance for generations across the world.
Facing the monument stands the billowing glass facade of the POLIN Museum. Turn around and cross the park to the southern terrace, where a quiet square remembers a historic German statesman.