Contents
- 1 Former Jewish Ghetto Warsaw – A Short Introduction
- 2 Umschlagplatz Monument in the former Jewish Ghetto of Warsaw
- 3 Monument to the Ghetto Heroes Warsaw (Pomnik Bohaterow Getta)
- 4 Warsaw Chamber Opera (Warszawska Opera Kameralna)
- 5 The Blue Tower of Warsaw (Błękitny Wieżowiec)
- 6 Norblin Factory in Warsaw
- 7 Chlodna Street Warsaw (Ulica Chłodna)
- 8 POLIN Museum
- 9 How To Get To Warsaw Poland
- 10 Former Jewish Ghetto Warsaw Map
Former Jewish Ghetto Warsaw – A Short Introduction

Before World War II, the northwest part of the city center of Warsaw comprised a Jewish district known as Nalewki. Warsaw’s Jewish population was then about 450,000, the largest after New York. In 1940 the Nazis turned Nalewki into the Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw. By 1942 they transported over 300,000 people to death camps. A further 100,000 died in the Ghetto.
Following the Ghetto Uprising in 1943, Nalewki was completely razed to the ground by the Nazis. In the postwar years, redevelopment changed the area into housing estates. Today, the Monument of the Ghetto Heroes is one of the many important memorials to those who perished. A museum celebrating 800 years of Jewish civilization in Poland, opened its doors in 2006.
Plan your trip to Warsaw with this complete Warsaw travel guide.
Bunker Monument in the former Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw
Between the streets of Mila and Niska, a small mound and bolder remember the bunker in which Mordechaj Anielwicz led the Uprising in the Ghetto. He blew up the bunker, committing suicide.
Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish National Theater in the former Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw

Performing plays steeped in Jewish traditions, the Jewish National Theater started in Lodz in 1949, when that city’s theater merged with another Jewish theater company in Poland from Lower Silesia.
The company moved to Warsaw in 1955. This building dates from 1970. Performances are in Yiddish, with translations into Polish. The theater also runs a Mime Theater and actor’s studio.
Address | Tłomackie 3/5 Street, Warsaw |
Jewish History Institute in the former Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw

The renowned architect Edward Eber designed the Jewish History Institute’s Neo-Classical building, completed in 1936. When designing this building, he aimed to harmonize the facade with that of the neighboring Great Synagogue (destroyed by the Nazis 7 years later).
The building served as both the Judaic Library and the Judaic History Institute. One of the Judaic History Institute’s lecturers was the outstanding historian Dr. Majer Balaban.
Umschlagplatz Monument in the former Jewish Ghetto of Warsaw

The Umschlagplatz Monument is from 1988, on the site of a former railway siding (called Umschlagplatz). Here the Nazis loaded Jews on cattle cars, and transported them to almost certain death in the concentration camps.
The monument was a joint project of the architect Hanna Szmalenberg and the sculptor Wladyslaw Klamerus. The names of hundreds of people from the ghetto are on the surface of the monument. They include Janusz Korczak and his group of Jewish orphans.
Address | Stawki, Former Jewish Ghetto Warsaw Area |
Monument to the Ghetto Heroes Warsaw (Pomnik Bohaterow Getta)

Erected in 1948 when Warsaw still lay in ruins, sculptor Natan Rapaport and architect Marek Suzin created this monument (Pomnik Bohaterow Getta). The work symbolizes the heroic defiance of the Ghetto Uprising in 1943, not planned as a bid for liberty, but as an honorable way to die.
Reliefs carved onto the monument show men, women, and children struggling to flee the burning ghetto, together with a procession of Jews driven to death camps under the threat of Nazi bayonets.
The monument is made from labradorite stone, quarried in Sweden. It’s the stone that the Nazis intended to use for victory monuments in the countries that they conquered.
Address | Zamenhofa, Former Jewish Ghetto Warsaw Area |
Warsaw Chamber Opera (Warszawska Opera Kameralna)

Built as a Protestant church between 1770-1780, this building now houses the Warsaw Chamber Opera (Warszawska Opera Kameralna). It’s also the venue that hosts an annual Mozart Festival held at the end of June and beginning of July.
Inhabitants of the small town of Leszno founded the church. The aristocratic Leszczynski family owned it. Leszno was home to settlers from Germany who came to Poland and managed to keep up their Protestant faith.
Address | Aleja Solidarnosci 76b, Former Jewish Ghetto Warsaw Area |
The Blue Tower of Warsaw (Błękitny Wieżowiec)

With its shimmering aquamarine glass walls, The Blue Tower (Błękitny Wieżowiec) is one of the city’s most attractive buildings. It’s from the early 1990s, after the fall of the Communist regime, and is a converted tower block that had stood unfinished for over 25 years. The facades of the tower block featured gold-colored aluminum. The tower became known as “the golden tooth of Warsaw.”
A cursed structure
It’s said that the structure is cursed, as it was on the former site of the Great Synagogue, once the largest Jewish temple in Warsaw. On 16 May 1943, the Nazis detonated the synagogue in retaliation for the Ghetto Uprising. It represented the last, barbaric liquidation of the Jewish quarter.
All that remains of the synagogue is a piece of one of the stone columns and a cloakroom ticket. Both are now in the Jewish History Institute Museum.
Address | Plac Bankowy 2, Former Jewish Ghetto Warsaw Area |
Norblin Factory in Warsaw

Currently housing the Industry Museum, part of the Museum of Technology, this was the “Norblin, Buch Bros & T. Werner Joint Stock Co”, renowned for producing silver and silver-plated items, sheet metal, and wire.
The museum comprises the original production halls, complete with equipment. There are stamping presses and forging machines. Extra temporary exhibitions illustrate the history of the Norblin plant and the motorcycle’s evolution. This includes a pre-war Sokol (Falcon) motorcycle, which connoisseurs put on par with the Harley-Davidson.
Address: Żelazna 51/53, Former Jewish Ghetto Warsaw
Chlodna Street Warsaw (Ulica Chłodna)

Before World War II, Chlodna Street (Ulica Chłodna)in today’s former Jewish ghetto of Warsaw was one of the busiest streets in the city. Its tenement blocks housed shops and several cinemas. Now, the only remnants of the street’s original character are sections of tram rails and a few houses that survived the war. Among these is the Neo-Baroque house at number 20, known as the “House under the Clock”.
It’s from 1912 and Waclaw Heppen and Jozef Napoleon Czerwinski designed it. During the Nazi occupation, the house was within the ghetto area and inhabited by Adam Czerniakow, chairman of the Judenrat.
Through his diaries, Czerniakow related the tragedy of Poland’s Jews. Chlodna Street was an important thoroughfare. To make it accessible to the Nazis and prevent Jews from using it, a wall emerged along both sides of the road. A wooden bridge then linked the two sides of the ghetto. There is a replica of the bridge in Washington’s Holocaust Museum.
POLIN Museum

The POLIN Museum is home to an extensive collection of artifacts. Exhibitions showcase more than 1,000 years of history of Jewish life in Poland. The museum is in the heart of the former Jewish quarter, in the area that was the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II.
Visiting the POLIN is like going on a journey through time, dating back to the Middle Ages. You can experience the fascinating history of Poland’s Jewish people by way of film and sound, images and objects, and historical documents and maps. For example, you can enter the gilded interior of a synagogue, or take a stroll through a virtual old shtetl.
You’ll also find a full schedule of temporary and traveling exhibitions. These include music and theater programs, lectures, workshops, and special activities for visitors of all ages. It’s a museum that finds new ways to inspire the public. That’s why the European Museum Forum declared it European Museum of the Year 2016.
Address | Analiewicza 6, Former Jewish Ghetto Warsaw Area |