Brick rubble recovered from the Warsaw Ghetto

Brick rubble from the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto. The rubble was excavated from the site of what is now the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, located among the ruins of the former Crown Artillery Barracks. The Barracks housed the ghetto post office, and at one point was the seat of the Judenrat. The monument was commemorated on April 19, 1948, and was the second monument, following a modest memorial unveiled in April 1946. On October 12, 1940, German authorities in Warsaw decreed the establishment of a 1.3-square-mile Jewish ghetto and forced over 400,000 Jews from the city and nearby towns to relocate there. Between July 22 and September 12, 1942, approximately 265,000 Jews were deported from Warsaw to Treblinka killing center, and another 35,000 were killed inside the ghetto. On April 19, 1943, Jewish resistance groups within the ghetto fought back against the scheduled liquidation, using hundreds of constructed bunkers around the ghetto. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising lasted a month before the German military suppressed the resistance, razed the ghetto, and transported the remaining inhabitants to forced-labor camps and killing centers. On July 19, 1943, the SS established Warsaw (Warschau in German) concentration camp on the ruins of the former ghetto, which camp prisoners were assigned to demolish and clean up. The impending arrival of Soviet forces led to the camp’s closure in July 1944. A second uprising erupted in Warsaw in August 1, 1944, and was defeated by German forces on October 2. The Soviet army liberated the city on January 17, 1945.