Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, Warsaw

The Monument to the Ghetto Heroes in Warsaw (Pomnik Bohaterów Getta) is one of Europe's most important Holocaust memorials: a massive stone block more than 10 meters tall, with reliefs by sculptor Nathan Rapoport, honoring the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of April 1943 and all of the ghetto's inhabitants. It stands in the Muranów district, where the first fighting of the uprising took place, directly opposite the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. This is where West German Chancellor Willy Brandt knelt in 1970.

Where it is

The monument is on Ghetto Heroes Square in Muranów, about 1.5 km west of Warsaw's Old Town and some 10 km from Warsaw Chopin Airport. Postwar Muranów was built on the rubble of the former ghetto, so the whole neighborhood is part of the story.

The Warsaw Ghetto and the uprising

German occupiers sealed off the Warsaw Ghetto in 1940; it became the largest ghetto in occupied Europe. In the summer of 1942, most of its inhabitants were deported from the Umschlagplatz to the Treblinka death camp. On April 19, 1943, when German forces moved in to liquidate the remaining ghetto, poorly armed Jewish fighters of the Jewish Combat Organization (ŻOB) and the Jewish Military Union (ŻZW) rose up. They held out for weeks before the district was burned and razed.

Before the war, an 18th-century barracks stood on this spot, later used as a military prison. From August 1942 it housed the Judenrat, the German-imposed Jewish council, and the first clashes of the uprising broke out nearby.

History of the monument

A first, modest memorial designed by Leon Suzin was unveiled on April 16, 1946: a round plaque inscribed in Polish, Hebrew and Yiddish. The present monument followed on April 19, 1948, the fifth anniversary of the uprising, with sculpture by Nathan Rapoport and architecture by Suzin. It was built of grey Scandinavian stone that, according to accounts, had been ordered by Albert Speer for Nazi victory monuments; sources describe the stone variously as basalt, labradorite or granite.

On December 7, 1970, Chancellor Willy Brandt dropped to his knees here, a spontaneous gesture that became a lasting symbol of German atonement and Polish-German reconciliation. Pope John Paul II paid homage in 1983, and in 2009 the funeral ceremonies of Marek Edelman, the last surviving commander of the uprising, were held here. The monument was restored in 2011–2012, and in 2019 the surrounding space was officially named Ghetto Heroes Square. A replica of the relief stands at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

What to see

• The west relief, "Struggle": a bronze group of fighters, including a mother holding a child, surrounded by flames.
• The east relief, "March to Annihilation": a stone frieze of persecuted people, with German helmets visible in the corner.
• The monument itself: a trapezoid block about 11 m high, flanked by bronze menorah-shaped candelabra.
• The Willy Brandt Memorial: a plaque showing the kneeling chancellor on the nearby square named after him, unveiled on December 6, 2000.

From here the Memorial Route of Jewish Martyrdom and Struggle, a line of granite blocks commemorating people and events, runs along Zamenhofa Street toward the Umschlagplatz memorial on Stawki Street, unveiled in 1988.

How to visit

The monument itself takes 15–20 minutes, but it works best as the starting point of a longer visit. Combine it with the POLIN Museum, on the west side of the square, and the walk along the Memorial Route to the Umschlagplatz (about 1 km). With the museum, plan half a day.

Every year on April 19, official and civic commemorations are held at the monument, and many people in Warsaw wear paper daffodils in memory of the insurgents. The square is flat and wheelchair accessible. This is a place of mourning: please behave quietly and don't climb on the monument.

Practical information (as of October 2026)

• Location: Ghetto Heroes Square (plac Bohaterów Getta Warszawskiego), at Zamenhofa and Anielewicza streets, Muranów, Warsaw.
• Admission: free, open 24 hours a day, all year.
• Winter: no restrictions; short days make it a good pairing with an afternoon at POLIN, and the square is lit after dark.

How to get there

The monument is about a 20-minute walk from the Old Town. Trams run along Andersa Street nearby, and buses stop around Anielewicza and Zamenhofa streets; Ratusz Arsenał metro station (line M1) is roughly 15 minutes on foot. Street parking is in a paid zone.

Is it worth visiting?

Yes. For anyone interested in World War II, Jewish history or European memory, this is one of the essential places in Warsaw, and it adds vital context to a visit to POLIN.

Nearby

• POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, right next to the monument.
• Willy Brandt Square and memorial.
• Umschlagplatz memorial on Stawki Street, about 1 km away.
• Anielewicz Mound on Miła Street, a symbolic grave at the site of the ŻOB command bunker.