Poland marks WW II Warsaw Jewish Ghetto liquidation anniversary

A chilld puts a ribbon on the fence of the Janusz Korczak orphanage site in Warsaw: photo - PAP/Tomasz Gzell

260,000 ghetto residents were deported and killed - a quarter of the then population of Warsaw – as the Nazis broke up the largest ghetto in occupied Poland.

The march on Sunday began at Umschlagplatz, where Jews were loaded onto trains bound for the Treblinka death camp.

The march then proceeded to a former Jewish orphanage named after Jewish educator Janusz Korczak, where ribbons were tied to the building's fence with the names of children who died in the Holocuast written on them.

Other events marking the anniversary included a special exhibition of drawings entitled “The Ghetto Diary”, which opened at the prestigious Kordegarda Gallery.

The exhibition includes illustrations made by an artist known only by the last name of Rozenfeld.

Another element of the exhibition is a single slice of bread weighing 140 grams - the daily food ration in the sealed ghetto area - and made according to a recipe and production rules imposed by the Nazi occupiers.

The anniversary events were especially focused on the plight of children and their suffering, explains Professor Pawel Spiewak, director of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw.

One of the drawings in the presented collection shows the brutal interrogation of children accused of smuggling bread into the starving ghetto.

“We know from records that such questioning often saw a tragic end for the interrogated children,” Professor Spiewak told Polish Radio. (pg/ss)