On the 83rd Anniversary of the beginning of the Great Liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto, Hundreds Walked Through Muranów in the 14th March of Remembrance
This year’s event was dedicated to the musicians of the ghetto – people who brought hope despite the omnipresence of death. The March in Warsaw became not only an act of remembrance but also a strong voice of protest against the distortion of history.
The Path of Remembrance – From the Umschlagplatz to the Krasiński Garden
On July 22 at 6:00 PM, a crowd gathered at the Umschlagplatz Monument – the place from which, during World War II, the Germans deported Jews to the Treblinka extermination camp. Over the course of two months, more than 250,000 people from the capital were sent there. In total, the number of victims of the German Grossaktion is estimated at 300,000. From the Umschlagplatz, the participants of the March of Remembrance walked in silence through the streets of Muranów to the Krasiński Garden.
This year's patrons of the march were musicians of the Warsaw Ghetto, including Artur Gold, Paulina Braun, and Josima Feldschuh. Their works – some reconstructed from sheet music found in the Ringelblum Archive – were performed at the end of the march during a memorial concert.
“Music to me is a prayer without words. It can touch your soul very deeply,” said Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland. “This year, our march has its bar mitzvah – it’s 13 years old – it is becoming an adult. Now we can be sure this march will be here forever,” he added.
The Names of Those Who Are No Longer With Us
A symbol of personal remembrance was the act of tying ribbons with the names of ghetto victims on the fence of the Krasiński Garden. Among the participants was Krystyna Budnicka – a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto. She tied ribbons with the names of her loved ones, victims of the Holocaust. “This is my mother Cyrla – she was beautiful, loving, wonderful. My brother Jehuda – he was twelve years old,” she said emotionally.
Krystyna Budnicka was born in 1932 as Hena Kuczer – the youngest of eight children of Cyrla and Józef Kuczer. She was the only one in her family to survive the war, hiding in sewers and bunkers. After the war, she studied teaching at the Catholic University of Lublin and worked for many years in special education. Since 1991, she has been active in the “Children of the Holocaust” Association.
Memory Is a Duty
In his speech, Dr. Michał Trębacz, Director of the Jewish Historical Institute, emphasized the significance of this year’s March as a unique form of testimony. As he explained, when he looks at the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, he sees not only those who fought with weapons in hand.
“This monument also honors those who were not given the chance to offer armed resistance against the Germans. It is to them that we dedicate the Marches of Remembrance — to those whose names we often do not know, those whose memory was meant to disappear. Our presence here is proof that this did not happen,” noted the JHI Director.
Referring to the late Marian Turski, who passed away in February this year, Trębacz pointed out that the Holocaust Survivor, “despite all his wisdom, did not foresee that views denying the Holocaust would so quickly emerge among his fellow countrymen.”
The JHI Director also stressed the need to return to fundamental historical facts:
“We must speak about what the ghettos were and why they were created, about the extermination camps — Auschwitz, Bełżec, Chełmno, Treblinka, and Sobibór — and about the fate of the hundreds of thousands of Jews executed in the East by the Einsatzgruppen,” he said.
Against Forgetting
“Over 300,000 Jews from Warsaw were murdered in Treblinka. (…) Our annual presence here — perhaps even more important this year than in years past — is a testimony that despite the passing of the Survivors, their memory lives on, and we will not allow it to be distorted,” assured the Director of the Jewish Historical Institute.
The March of Remembrance was also attended by representatives of the Polish and Israeli governments. The Government of the Republic of Poland was represented by Deputy Foreign Minister Anna Radwan-Röhrenschef and Deputy Minister of Culture and National Heritage Maciej Wróbel. Yaakov Finkelstein, Israel’s Ambassador to Poland, also walked through the streets of the former Warsaw Ghetto.
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Heschel Center News