The ceremony was held at Bellevue Palace in Berlin. The photographs, captured by German nurse Helmy Spethmann during the Nazi occupation of Warsaw, offer a haunting glimpse into the harsh realities of life in the Ghetto.
Steinmeier, in his speech, highlighted the significance of these images in remembering the atrocities committed against the Jewish population of Warsaw.
"These photographs give us an idea of the cruelty that people there experienced since the fall of 1940. The German occupiers confined the Jewish population of Warsaw, 400,000 people, in the Muranów district, systematically starved them, tormented them, abused them and eventually deported most of them to concentration and extermination camps. Only a few survived," Steinmeier noted.
Spethmann worked at a Wehrmacht hospital in Warsaw, and photographed the city and her colleagues at the hospital.
"Walking around Warsaw with a camera, she was also in the ghetto - she was probably there many times. Why she did this, what she was thinking and whether she consciously wanted to bear witness to the horror - we don't know," Steinmeier said.
He concluded, emphasizing the importance of ensuring that the history depicted in these photographs is never forgotten, a mission that aligns with the POLIN Museum's goal to preserve the memory of Jewish life in Poland and Europe.
The Warsaw Ghetto, established by Germany in November 1940 within occupied Poland, was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. At its peak, it imprisoned as many as 460,000 Jews in an area of 3.4 km², with extreme overcrowding and meager food rations leading to widespread starvation and disease. From summer 1942, over 254,000 residents were deported to the Treblinka death camp. The Ghetto was demolished in May 1943 following the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, with a total death toll estimated at over 300,000.
Source: PAP, Radio Poland
