Anniversary of the Beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto <i>Grossaktion</i> (22nd July 1942)
In the early morning of Wednesday 22nd July 1942, police surrounded the Warsaw ghetto - the largest in occupied Europe - which contained almost half a million people. The Commissioner in charge of relocations, SS-Sturmbannführef Herman Höfle, arrived from Lublin and went to the offices of the Judenrat. He gave the Judenrat orders regarding the relocation of the ghetto population, exempting those employed by German enterprises and by institutions managing the functioning of the ghetto. Those to be relocated were permitted to take 15kg of baggage with them, and were required to hand over all money and valuables Przesiedleńcom zezwolono na zabranie zaledwie 15 kg bagażu, ale wszystkich posiadanych pieniędzy i kosztowności.
The so-called Grossaktion (large operation) began. It was intended to resettle all the Jews in the east. In reality, the destination was Treblinka II, one of the centres of extermination which was established in the spring of 1942 and was to lead to (as the Germans described it) the final solution to the Jewish question - namely, the murder of Europe's Jews.
Transports containing 5,000-7,000 people left daily from the Umschlagplatz, near the goods ramp of the Gdańsk railway station. Many Jews reported voluntarily, wishing to receive a ration of food - bread in the starving ghetto was priceless. During the course of barely two months (from the end of July to the end of September), around 300,000 Jews were deported and murdered in Treblinka's gas chambers. Whole families were murdered as were the entire residents of whole streets - one quarter of Warsaw's pre-War population.
On the 22nd July 2016, a March of Remembrance will will take place through the capital, marking the 74th anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto by the Germans. The march will commence at 5:00pm from the Umschlagplatz monument at ul. Stawki and will end at around 6:30pm at ul. Śliska, at the site of the former Bersohn and Bauman Children's Hospital.
The March is organised by the E Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute, in cooperation with the municipal authorities of Warsaw's Wola and Śródmieście districts and the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
