The Warsaw Ghetto | DW Documentary
DW Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8QmqHfy-EI

Transkript (automatisch erstellt)

0:14 [Music] There's nothing here to remind me of my birthplace.
0:29 There was once a beautiful square, Morinki Square. I remember trees and benches.
0:42 I was born in Warsaw into a traditional Jewish family. I went to a preschool for Jewish children where they taught Polish.
0:52 At home, we spoke Yiddish, but I had no problem with the Polish language. We spoke that, too.
1:06 My parents lived in Warsaw. My grandparents do. We lived at 91 Street. By the gate was a tiny shop which was owned by our Jewish neighbor.
1:20 He had this trick where he'd pretend to stitch his fingers together with a needle. Of course, it made a huge impression on
1:28 us kids. We'd be horrified. He had a daughter called L who was friends with my sister.
1:41 We live just like normal neighbors. My street was Novip. Sometimes I can see it more clearly than
1:53 the Warsaw around me today. In my memory, it's still the same. In the morning, warm pretzels would be delivered. They were called bagels.
2:05 You won't find bagels like those anywhere these days. You could take one and untwist it.
2:16 My parents lived at 49 Marshovska Street. It was a so-called good neighborhood. My nanny would take me to the Church of
2:26 the Holiest Savior. I remember we had to recite prayers. Some children would say they didn't know the prayers.
2:35 I knew them because my nanny taught me. For me, the war began at the Jordan Park on Bagatila Street. I was sitting in a
2:48 sand pit and my mom came over. She said, "There's a war. What are we going to do? [Music]
3:11 [Music] It's the special quality of the Nazi system. People who had the energy to develop
3:28 something had the power to do it. When Mr. Dangle took over in Warso in early December 39. He had the idea to
3:48 invite Hubert Gross to come to Warso and build a German bow failek gross upon the advice of Mr. Danielle developed a dream of
4:03 reducing Warso to next to nothing. On the screen is the visualization from one of my projects. It's based on
4:30 fascist plans for the construction of a new German city, the Noat Vasha. This is a virtual reconstruction of that new Warsaw. This is the city center. It's a
4:42 relatively small city. The entrances were to be guarded by watchtowers on all sides. These are the main buildings of the new
4:51 German Warsaw. On the Praga side, there was to be a district for Poles who would be slowly
5:02 exterminated. The new German city of Warsaw was to be inhabited only by Germans. There was to be no Jewish population.
5:14 With regard to Warsaw, the Furer has decided that the reconstruction of that city as a major Polish metropolis is absolutely out of the question. The
5:23 Furer's wish is that in accordance with plans for the territo's development under the general government, Warsaw be reduced to the level of a provincial
5:30 city. From the diary of Governor General Hansf Frank. Once the Germans arrived, the terror began almost right away with various
5:48 official announcements and notices. All Jews were forced to wear armbands with the Star of David. It was awful.
6:05 In my mind, this was a form of degradation. At any moment, I could be humiliated.
6:15 In the spring of 1940, consultations began with a view to creating one or more Jewish housing districts within the city of Warsaw. In the end, however, it
6:25 was decided that a single district should be established in the area where Jews were traditionally the majority. Dr. Friedrich Gollet, SS Undoufa, Head
6:35 of Division of Regional Planning, Office of the Governor of the District of Warsaw. [Music]
6:58 Where was the Jewish neighborhood in Warsaw? There were Jewish neighborhoods. Yeah. Nalefki, no Valipki, where it was almost all Jewish. But when
7:10 you're a third of the city, you're all over the city. And the interaction with non-Jews was a normal daily event.
7:19 That comes to a crashing halt with the building of the Warsagetto wall which goes through the heart of the city and divides Jews from non-Jews
7:32 as they were never divided before. The wall didn't appear suddenly. Bits and pieces of wall started to be built
7:45 from April 1940. These were sections of wall or barriers with barbed wire. They popped up in various places.
7:57 [Music] I had no idea I was Jewish. So, first I was asking why do we have to move and
8:16 later what does it mean that I'm Jewish and why do we have to leave our home? [Music]
8:41 When we arrived in the ghetto, the first thing I saw was a horrible poster. I didn't want to be like that Jew on the poster. And I was distraught at being
8:51 forced to live there. I thought that every Jew had to look like that. I was so terribly humiliated by all this. I said to my mom I didn't
9:00 want to be a Jew anymore, that I wanted to go back to Marshovska Street. And why was all this happening anyway?
9:16 notice. By order of the district governor and effective immediately, a self-contained Jewish quarter is to be created in the district of Warsaw with a
9:25 view to preventing the spread of disease. In the city of Warsaw, a boundary running around the Jewish quarter has been established. All border
9:33 streets are to be closed off from it on both sides as follows. From Giela to Kruvka and Zwarta. From Zwarta to Giela and Jalasna. From
9:44 Touvvada to Jalasna and Strebra. From Srea to Tada and Miaana. From Miaana to Srebrina and Kajime Square.
11:14 that she's We already lived in the area that was now the ghetto because Moranovski Square
11:22 was inside the area. Jews who lived outside the ghetto had to move in and Poles who lived in the ghetto had to move out.
11:32 This led to very painful situations for people. They left their homes. They left their furniture and possessions carrying only a few small bundles with them.
11:44 The ghetto became very crowded. [Music] We've all seen the images of the
11:54 expulsion of the Jewish community. Something similar happened the other way around, too. There were tens of thousands of people like us. I remember
12:03 sitting on a cart full of our things. [Music] We were thrown out of Jalajna because
12:16 the ghetto was created there. We were moved to Brekka Street number five, apartment 110. It was a ruin.
12:33 measures involved the resettlement of around 700 ethnic Germans, 113,000 Poles, and 138,000 Jews. The Warsaw Jewish Housing District is an enclosed
12:45 area cut off from its surroundings by walls, fences, and so on. Movement of persons and goods in out of the area is by special permit only.
12:56 Dr. for Friedrich Gollett, SS Untoura, Head of Division of Regional Planning, Office of the Governor of the District of Warsaw.
13:09 [Music] The Jewish population always looked for contacts outside the ghetto wall to get
13:21 food. At first, Lorna came to us on Beska Street, though we weren't well off at
13:30 the time. We were three siblings, my mom and my dad.
13:39 My father did the smuggling because there was no other way then. But my mother put aside potatoes and peelings for her.
13:56 Later stopped coming. Of course, we didn't know why.
14:10 After that, my sister simply disappeared. I don't know how. She and my father just ceased to exist.
14:19 I don't remember any farewell or any of the circumstances. Maybe my memory suppressed it because it was too terrible.
14:37 The city center was cut off and ceased to function normally. When you see which part of the city made up the ghetto, you realize it was really
14:48 the heart of Warsaw. If you take into account that the Germans also carved off a piece for
14:56 themselves, what was left of Warsaw for other residents was just a small part. The German housing district has been created for the protection of the German
15:14 population at their request. The police cannot guarantee Germans living outside of this district the same degree of personal safety as is provided to those
15:24 living within it. Hunts Flegner Nazi party Warsaw.
15:54 [Music] Night and day by rail in carts and buses, Jews arrive here from Polish
16:35 towns and villages. is the individual vanishes in this enormous human mass. People are crammed in.
16:51 Individual faces are unrecognizable. [Music]
17:14 The German army and civilians must in any event be protected from the Jews, immune carriers of disease. The separation of Jews from the rest of the
17:23 population, Polish as well as ethnic Germans, is a moral and political imperative. Traffic in the center of Warsaw has also been only minimally
17:32 affected by the creation of the Jewish housing district. In the interests of the Vermacht and the economy, great care was taken to ensure
17:42 that certain main thorough affairs would remain crossable without obstruction to through traffic. Valdemar Shern SSandatenfura,
17:51 Director of Department of Resettlement, Office of the Governor of the District of Warsaw.
18:01 [Music] The German planners divided things up, each administering their division.
18:14 They even designated which streets a tram would travel along to shorten its route through the ghetto. That created two ghettos. It was all a terrifying
18:23 mishmash of evil. Street ended up dividing the Jewish district. The district was cut into two parts by
18:32 the critically important tram line that ran along. The ghetto was divided into two parts, a small ghetto and a large one.
18:50 In order for Jews to move back and forth between the small and the large ghetto, it was necessary to stop the flow of traffic at intervals. Since this was
18:59 inconvenient for the Germans, Jews were given permission to cross over as infrequently as possible.
19:14 As I walked along Jalashna, I would see from a distance the crowd milling at the corner of Quadna. People would be shifting restlessly on the spot, waiting
19:25 for the German police to decide when the traffic on Guadnau was light enough and the crowd on Jalagna thick enough to warrant letting the Jews across the
19:34 street. When the moment finally came, the police cordon would part and the impatient
19:50 crowd would surge forward in both directions, pushing each other over in the panic to distance themselves from the dangerous German presence and melt
20:00 once more into the depths of the two ghettos. A line in the pavement shows where the ghetto border ran, how the ghetto fit
20:44 into Warsaw. It wasn't an isolated island surrounded by the unknown. It was embedded in the
20:56 city. In each plaque, there's a marker showing where we are. The parts of downtown Warsaw that were torn away are elevated.
21:18 Litz and my intention was to show the ghetto in real space how it was and where the boundary ran
22:21 Come on. A Jew who didn't have a lot of money or didn't have a pole who was his friend
22:53 didn't stand a chance. There was nothing he could do. He cared only about what he would eat the next day and what he would give his
23:05 children. I was one of those who didn't have anything.
23:18 About 80% of food in the ghetto came from smuggling, not from the official suppliers authorized by the Germans. If someone had money, they could get
23:29 things into the ghetto somehow. I once witnessed a tram passing through Muranovski Square, and as it turned the corner, items were thrown out. It
23:37 couldn't stop in the ghetto. This was how trade carried on. In some places, the ghetto walls did not come right down to the pavement at
24:42 regular intervals. There were openings at ground level through which water flowed into drains running along the sidewalks. These openings were also used
24:52 by children for smuggling. Tiny dark creatures with legs like matchsticks would converge on these openings from all sides. Terrified eyes darted from
25:02 left to right and frail paws dragged through bundles that were often bigger than the tiny smugglers themselves.
25:45 [Music] [Music]
26:03 Notice any Jew unlawfully leaving the designated housing district is to be punished by death. The same punishment
26:11 will apply to persons who consciously protect such Jews or in any way assist them. Warsaw, 10th of November, 1941. Dr. Fischer, Governor
26:33 Sienna is a very important street for me. This is a street I was scared of and I still am to this day.
26:43 I've never walked this street without feeling afraid. Behind this wall, I spent more than two years in the ghetto with my family.
26:57 When I first found myself back here, I began looking obsessively for the hole through which my mom and I had escaped. I just stood there going back in time,
27:07 trying to figure where that hole could be. But the hole was probably somewhere else further on.
27:18 [Music] When I look back, I see two years of humiliation, imprisonment, hunger, and
27:34 fear. As I said, I'm scared of Sienna Street. I still expect to either see or remember something terrible there.
27:48 [Music] [Music]
28:00 [Music] [Music]
28:17 All around I could see handcarts and on them bodies of men, women, and children piled carelessly one on top of the other.
28:26 I became aware of a strange, vaguely sweet and sickening odor I'd never smelled before.
28:35 A Jewish policeman explained, "Next to the Jewish cemetery, there was once a large field. Today, it's one of the biggest mass graves ever, filled with
28:46 the bodies of Jews from all corners of Europe. Could this be real? How was it possible that a human being of flesh and blood
29:06 should have to die in such a pitiful fashion? The German occupation murdered 90% of the Jews here. It's heartbreaking.
29:27 And then if you could imagine that not only does the wall go through the heart of the city right in the middle of a street, it stops. But on the other side
29:36 of that wall, starvation, disease, and very soon after, deportation to death.
29:52 [Music] For security reasons, I order that the ghetto of Warsaw be demolished. All
30:16 utilizable building parts and other materials of any value are to first be salvaged. An overall plan for the raising of the ghetto is to be submitted
30:24 to me. We must in any event ensure that the living space occupied until now by 500,000 subhumans and in no way fit for habitation by Germans disappears
30:36 completely and that Warsaw, this city of 1 million, always a center of corruption and revolt, is reduced in size. Hinrich Himmler Reichfura SS.
30:55 At the same time as an organized resistance group was preparing to fight, Jews in the ghetto were going into hiding.
31:11 I went into that bunker in January 43 and in April the uprising broke out. My brothers left to take part in the uprising. This bunker was built around a
31:20 basement that had been dug deeper with boarded up sides. The dugout earth was piled up all around and it provided some kind of insulation. When the fires
31:29 started, everything in the neighboring basement collapsed and burned. But this bunker survived.
31:40 [Music] I remember 1943 seeing uncanny clouds of smoke rising
31:51 from the north fighting in the ghetto. Something was happening there.
32:02 [Music] There is no longer a Jewish quarter of Warsaw.
32:20 Jurgen Stro SS Grienfura. It still pains me that after all these years, I never got to mourn my family. I
32:36 never even had time for that. I lost everyone. I had six brothers and a sister and parents. I'm the only one who survived it all. I was left as a
32:46 witness. Without me, there'd be nobody. The value of life is in bearing witness. Yes.
33:02 Water's geisha street concentration camp was set up to hold people needed to demolish the ghetto. It wasn't only blown up with dynamite but also
33:10 dismantled. It was completely plundered and that camp was hell. People died there.
33:20 On the ruins of the ghetto, the Nazis wanted to create a park for Germans, hence the demolition.
33:30 The area was to be covered over with earth and turned into a garden paradise. The intention was to destroy the capital of what was formerly uh Poland. That was
33:50 the main intention to destroy the idea alone of a capital because there was no more Poland.
34:06 I spent almost a year on the Aryan side. There was a whole network of helpers. If things got dangerous, someone would come by and take you by the hand.
34:17 [Music] On the 1st of August 1944, the uprising broke out. Twice I lived through the burning of Warsaw.
34:41 All around the walls were almost redot and people were being herded along. On both sides of the streets, burning debris was coming down.
34:55 Warsaw was on fire and you could feel it. [Music]
35:22 after liberation in 1945. you couldn't live in Warsaw really and slowly trying to rebuild and then getting again undermined by Soviet occupation
35:36 and oppression It's difficult to imagine what was here before the war. This area has changed so
36:05 much. Certain streets and squares ceased to exist. Names were changed. Directions were altered. No more than a dozen or so original buildings have survived.
36:22 This area has many layers. Underneath the ground is a second layer which shows itself when workers dig down to lay pipes.
36:32 Then the remains of the past are uncovered. In 1949, the architect Bhan Lad created a housing estate which was to be a
36:48 memorial space. What was unique was that the bricks of the buildings were made from rubble on
37:01 top of whatever else that was in the rubble, including human remains. The buildings stand on concrete foundations made using rubble. They rise
37:18 from these strange little hills. That stands out because Warsaw is a flat city.
37:30 People calling me and saying, "There are spirits in my apartment. I'm in the old ghetto. Can you do something?
37:40 Well, I have that's beyond my competence. But I did go and I said psalms because if a person feels I can make them if I
37:48 can make someone feel more at peace, then I'm happy to do so. [Music]
38:01 [Music] [Music]
38:19 [Music] [Music]
38:35 [Music] This line shows where Muranovska Street would have run. Your building was here
38:52 on the corner number 10. Yes. On this map, I've marked the location of your former home, superimposing it on the current image.
39:03 It was on this street at the intersection. That's where your home used to be.
39:13 I was born here. [Music]
39:46 [Music] the memory of the ghetto. It's beginning to really return into the memory into
40:06 the soul of Warsaw. Give people a chance to remember and chances are they will remember.
40:21 [Music] April 19th, the anniversary of the Wasto uprising.
40:28 While we're moving farther away from the event, actually the number of people coming is growing. That's a sign of hope.
40:49 [Music] [Music]
41:29 [Music] [Music]
41:56 [Music]