Monument of the Warsaw Ghetto Fighters' Evacuation

On May 1, 1943, on the orders of the Jewish Combat Organization (Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa), Zygmunt Frydrych and Symcha Ratajzer-Rotem, known as "Kazik," crossed over to the "Aryan" side to prepare for the evacuation of the remaining Jewish insurgents who were still alive. On May 8, with the help of two Polish municipal waterworks employees, Ratajzer returned through the sewers to the ghetto to search for survivors. In one of the tunnels, he encountered a group of about 10 fighters trying to find a way out of the district that had been set on fire by the Germans. "Kazik" ordered the gathering of all the surviving insurgents and a joint evacuation through the sewer system. The operation was aided by a member of the People's Guard, Władysław Gaik, known as "Krzaczek."

During the night of May 8 to May 9, 1943, a group of several dozen insurgents descended into the sewer system through a hatch located on Franciszkańska Street. After a few hours, they reached a pre-arranged meeting point near one of the hatches leading to a tunnel running under Prosta Street. On May 9, the evacuation turned out to be impossible due, in part, to difficulties in obtaining transportation.

On May 10, at 10:00 AM, a truck hired by Władysław Gaik from a transportation company arrived near the hatch. The truck was supposedly intended for moving furniture. Exhausted Jewish insurgents emerged from the sewer in front of passersby. However, not everyone was evacuated, as a few individuals had separated from the group and were not present at the agreed-upon hatch during the evacuation.

The truck with the insurgents departed towards Łomianki.

According to some sources, the fighters spent 48 hours in the sewers. Among those saved were individuals such as Cywia Lubetkin, Tosia Altman, Michał Rozenfeld, and Marek Edelman.

According to Symcha Ratajzer's account, the entrance to the sewer was located on Prosta Street, about 100 meters from the intersection with Żelazna Street. However, Marek Edelman believed that the truck stopped "at the intersection of Łucka, Prosta, and Wronia Streets."

The authors of the monument are architects Konrad Kucza-Kuczyński and Jan Kucza-Kuczyński, and sculptor Maksymilian Biskupski. The central element of the monument is a bronze sculpture in the form of a slanted cylindrical block, about 2 meters high, symbolizing the entrance to the canal. Inside the block, there is a Star of David made of rods, and on the wall, metal steps are attached, with sculpted human hands. The composition is completed by memorial plaques made of black granite, placed diagonally on both sides of the sculpture.

On the plaques to the right, there is an inscription in Polish, English, and Hebrew, which reads:

"At this location on May 10, 1943, Simcha Rotem-Ratajzer, pseudonym 'Kazik,' a participant in the uprising, led the last group of about 40 insurgents from the Jewish Combat Organization through the sewers from the burning ghetto. They later fought in partisan units and in the Warsaw Uprising."

Some of them survived the war and could bear witness to the heroism of the Warsaw Ghetto.

On the plaques to the left, the names of 37 Jewish fighters, evacuated on May 10, 1943, are listed. The names are divided into three groups: those who left the sewers and survived the war, those who left and died later, and those who died during the evacuation. In the last column, the names of the organizers of the action are listed.

To emphasize the historical context of the place, an architectural solution was applied, similar to the commemoration from the Warsaw Uprising period on Krasińskich Square in Warsaw: lines on the pavement extend the axis of the memorial plaques, converging at the manhole cover on Prosta Street, from which Jewish fighters emerged from the sewers on May 10, 1943.

During the unveiling ceremony of the monument on May 13, 2010, the last surviving participants of the events from 1943 - Symcha Ratajzer-Rotem and Pnina Grynszpan-Frymer - were present.

On April 18, 2013, on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, a plaque commemorating the sewer workers Wacław Śledziewski and Czesław Wojciechowski was unveiled at the monument.

The monument was created at the initiative of the Association for Documentation and Promotion of the Cultural Heritage of Jews in Central and Eastern Europe "Memory of the Diaspora."