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Obj. ID: 52488
Memorials
  Memorial Route of Martyrdom and Struggle of Jews in Warsaw - block 6 (Józef Lewartowski)

© Vladimir, Levin, Photographer: Levin, Vladimir, 2023

Memorial Name

Trakt Pamięci Męczeństwa i Walki Żydów w Warszawie (Memorial Route of Martyrdom and Struggle of Jews in Warsaw)

Who is Commemorated?

Jewish fighters and victims of the Warsaw Ghetto.

Description:

The monument is part of the Memorial Route of Martyrdom and Struggle of Jews in Warsaw. 

The stone block is made of unpolished black syenite. Its upper surface is shaped like a traditional Jewish tombstone and is polished. This surface bears a depiction of a seven-branched menorah and identical Polish and Hebrew inscriptions. The dates 1940–1943, indicating the period of existence of the Warsaw Ghetto, are placed on the front of the block. Polish and Hebrew inscriptions, “Memorial Route of Martyrdom and Struggle of Jews,” are placed on the left and right sides of the block.

Inscription

Polish

Józef Lewartowski
1895-1942, pełnomocnik KC PPR
w Dzielnicy Żydowskiej,
współtwórca i przywódca
bloku antyfaszystowskiego;
zastrzelony w getcie.
Odznaczony pośmiertnie
Krzyżem Grunwaldu III klasy

Translation: Józef Lewartowski, 1895-1942, representative of the Central Committee of the Polish Workers' Party in the Jewish Quarter, co-founder and leader of the anti-fascist bloc; shot in the ghetto. He was posthumously awarded the Grunwald Cross, 3rd class.

Hebrew

יוסף לברטובסקי
1890 – 1942, נציג הוועד הפועל
של מפלגת הפועלים הפולנית
(פפ"ר), ברובע היהודי בוארשה,
ממקימי הבלוק האנטיפשיסטי
וממנהיגיו; נורה למוות בגטו.
לאחר מותו צוין באתור הצלב
של גרונוולד דרגה III

Translation: Józef Lewartowski, 1895-1942, representative of the Central Committee of the Polish Workers' Party (PPR) in the Jewish Quarter in Warsaw, one of the founders and leaders of the anti-fascist bloc; shot in the ghetto. He was posthumously awarded the Grunwald Cross, 3rd class.

On the sides of the stone:

1940–1943

Polish

Trakt pamięci
męczeństwa
i walki
Żydów

Translation: Memorial Route of Martyrdom and Struggle of Jews.

Hebrew

נתיב הזיכרון
לשואה
ולגבורת
היהודים

Translation: Memorial Route of the Holocaust and Heroism of Jews.

 

Commissioned by

 [to be determined]

 

 

 

Summary and Remarks
Remarks

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Name/Title
Memorial Route of Martyrdom and Struggle of Jews in Warsaw - block 6 (Józef Lewartowski) | Unknown
Object Detail
Monument Setting
Date
1988
Active dates
Reconstruction dates
Artist/ Maker
Historical Origin
Unknown
Community type
Unknown |
Congregation
Unknown
Location
Poland | Mazowieckie Voivodeship | Warsaw (Warszawa)
| Corner of Zamenhofa and Lewartowskiego Streets
Site
Unknown
School/Style
Unknown|
Period
Unknown
Period Detail
Collection
Unknown |
Documentation / Research project
Unknown
Iconographical Subject
Textual Content
Languages of inscription
Shape / Form
Material / Technique
Black syenite
Material Stucture
Material Decoration
Material Bonding
Material Inscription
Material Additions
Material Cloth
Material Lining
Tesserae Arrangement
Density
Colors
Construction material
Measurements
Height
85 cm
Length
Width
80 cm
Depth
Circumference
Thickness
100 cm
Diameter
Weight
Axis
Panel Measurements
Condition
Extant
Documented by CJA
Surveyed by CJA
Present Usage
Present Usage Details
Condition of Building Fabric
Architectural Significance type
Historical significance: Event/Period
Historical significance: Collective Memory/Folklore
Historical significance: Person
Architectural Significance: Style
Architectural Significance: Artistic Decoration
Urban significance
Significance Rating
0
Ornamentation
Custom
Contents
Codicology
Scribes
Script
Number of Lines
Ruling
Pricking
Quires
Catchwords
Hebrew Numeration
Blank Leaves
Direction/Location
Façade (main)
Endivances
Location of Torah Ark
Location of Apse
Location of Niche
Location of Reader's Desk
Location of Platform
Temp: Architecture Axis
Arrangement of Seats
Location of Women's Section
Direction Prayer
Direction Toward Jerusalem
Coin
Coin Series
Coin Ruler
Coin Year
Denomination
Signature
Colophon
Scribal Notes
Watermark
Hallmark
Group
Group
Group
Group
Group
Trade Mark
Binding
Decoration Program
Suggested Reconsdivuction
History/Provenance

The unveiling of the route took place on April 18, 1988, on the eve of the 45th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

The unveiling of the route took place on April 18, 1988, on the eve of the 45th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

The history of the monument is described by Kontanty Gebert:

"For the fortieth anniversary of the Uprising, in 1983, the Polish government, in an unprecedented gesture, invited Jewish organizations from all over the world to parti­cipate. Just as unprecedented was the call of Marek Edelman, the last surviving mem­ber of the Jewish Fighting Organizations command and activist of the then-banned Solidarity Trade Union, for a boycott of the official ceremonies. Edelman's call went largely unheeded, while Solidarity endorsed the unofficial ceremony. Police forcibly prevented trade union participants from laying wreaths at the memorials, outraging local inhabitants, who then joined in the ceremony-turned-demonstration. There­after, until the end of martial law, unofficial ceremonies at the memorials became im­portant Polish patriotic events with the mass participation of the Gentile population.

An offshoot of the activities of the dissident group was the creation of a Civic Committee for the Preservation of Jewish Monuments. Having gained official recog­nition, the Committee decided to build a new Holocaust memorial, breaking with the traditional emphasis on both the Uprising and the de-individualized approach to the Jewish victims who were being commemorated. The project, called the Memorial Route of Jewish Martyrdom and Struggle, designed by architect Hanna Szmalenberg and sculptor Wladyslaw Klamerus, received official approval and was unveiled in 1988, on the forty-fifth anniversary of the Ghetto Uprising.

Its basic idea, based on the format adopted by participants in unofficial ceremo­nies, consists of nineteen one-meter high, black syenite blocks spread out between the monument and the Umschlagplatz, two commemorative plaques on the buildings that housed the SS headquarters and the Jewish hospital, and a new Umschlagplatz memorial. Each block commemorates an individual connected with the Ghetto, such as the poet Itzhak Katzenelson, Ghetto fighter Frumka Plotnicka, or religious leader Itzhak Nyssenbaum. Walking along this route, which is a kind of "memory lane," passersby can acquaint themselves with the fates of these leaders and thus gain insight into the personal fates of some of the half million Ghetto victims.

This route leads visitors to the new Umschlagplatz memorial, an enclosure in white marble, with a narrow entrance capped by a black bas-relief representing a forest of felled trees. Facing that entrance is a gap in the opposite wall through which a living tree can be seen. On the inner walls of the memorial, several hundred names are engraved — the first names of the Ghetto victims who were deported to Treblinka. The languages used are Polish, Hebrew, and English, but the list of names is only in Polish, for lack of space.

This new memorial merges with the community's real-life, urban surroundings. Its physically and metaphorically human scale, and the shift in emphasis from the heroic resistance of the few to the tragic fate of the hundreds of thousands, enables passersby to experience a personal relationship with those who lived there. Thus, the history of the Warsaw Ghetto has again become connected with the lives of its latter-day inhabitants, re-creating a bond which the former official version of events had all but broken." [Gebert]

Main Surveys & Excavations
Sources

Gebert, Kontanty, “The Dialectics of Memory in Poland: Holocaust Memorials in Warsaw,” in James E. Young, The Art of Memory: Holocaust Memorials in History (New York: Jewish Museum, 1994), 121-129.
Type
Documenter
Vladimir Levin | 2023
Author of description
Vladimir Levin | 2024
Architectural Drawings
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Computer Reconstruction
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Section Head
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Language Editor
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Donor
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Negative/Photo. No.
The following information on this monument will be completed: