Marchers to commemorate Jews deported from Warsaw ghetto 80 years ago

A March of Remembrance will be held in the Polish capital on Friday to mark eight decades since the Germans began deporting Jews from the World War II-era Warsaw Ghetto.

A section of the historic wall of the Warsaw Ghetto at 62 Złota Street.

Photo: Adrian Grycuk [CC BY-SA 3.0 pl (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/pl/deed.en)]via Wikimedia Commons

July 22 marks the 80th anniversary of the start of the mass deportation of Jews from the ghetto to the Nazi German Treblinka extermination camp.

An estimated 300,000 Jews were taken to the camp's gas chambers within the course of two months.

The deportation operation ended on September 21, 1942, although trains also departed for Treblinka during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which took place from April 19 to May 16, 1943.

#OTD 80 years ago, Germans announced the Great Liquidation Action at the #WarsawGhetto. In reality, transports of Jews were heading towards the newly established Treblinka death camp, where they were sent straight to gas chambers. pic.twitter.com/bW0baTMg18

— Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland (@PremierRP_en) July 22, 2022

This year’s March of Remembrance will start at 6 p.m. at the Umschlagplatz, a collection point where Jews were assembled for deportation, to Stare Nalewki Street, which was the centre of Warsaw’s prewar Jewish district.

The Jewish Historical Institute, which has organized the march since 2012, describes its route as a symbolic "from death to life" experience, with the participants carrying Ribbons of Memory with the names of murdered Jews.

The march is expected to conclude with a musical installation by cellist Michał Pepol, featuring a guest appearance by singer Sława Przybylska.

(mk/gs)

Click on the audio player above for a report by Radio Poland's Elżbieta Krajewska.