660 meters and 26 years
or Transportation to the East and/or Transportation to West. Above are very special numbers and dates, particularly now 40 years after March 8th 1968 in Warszawa...
What is the first number 660 meters (2.165 feet). This is the distance between the Umschlagplatz and the Gdanska Station in Warszawa (see present Google image). The railroad track at the bottom of the image, pointing left was in direction to Treblinka (east) the tracks in opposite direction were going to West.
Action 1942-1943 The Umschlagplatz, literally transshipment square Um was the former railway siding by Dzika and Stawki Street. Here the Nazis loaded Jews from Warszawa Ghetto onto cattle trucks to be resettled in the east, which in practice meant being sent on crowded freight cars to the extermination camp at Treblinka, 90 kilometres (55 miles) east of Warsaw.
The trains leaving Umschlagplatz Um (see pictures below) were turning east from railway siding passing station Gdanska Warszawa G-W railway station and going towards the railway bridge on Wisla river.
Umschlagplatz was at the northern boundary of the Warsaw Ghetto. Besides on the Umschlagplatz, the Jews had were boarding the cattle wagon trains at freight section of the Gdanska Warszawa railroad station.
On July 22, 1942 the Warsaw Ghetto was surrounded by Ukrainian and Latvian soldiers in Nazi SS uniforms, as the liquidation of the Ghetto began in response to an order given by Heinrich Himmler that "the resettlement of the entire Jewish population of the General Government be carried out and completed by December 31.
More than 310 thousands Jews from Warszawa Ghetto, among them my family, were transported from Umschlagsplatz to Treblinka and murdered there.
Before the Action started on July 22, 1942 approximately 100 thousands Jews died in the ghetto due to starvation and diseases like typhus. 60 thousands Jews died in 1943 during the last Action and the Ghetto uprise.
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| Luftwaffe picture of Warszawa. UM - Umschlagsplats. G-W - Warszawa Gdanska (Danzig Banhof). Bridge to Treblinka (100 km). |
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| Umschlagsplats - picture taken outside the wall |
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| Umschlagsplats - year 1942 - loading peoples to the cattle cars in trains heading east, to Treblinka. More than 310 thousands Jews from Warszawa Ghetto, among them my family, were transported from Umschlagsplatz to Treblinka and murdered there. |
Action 1968-1970
Starting in middle sixties, there was an outbreak of anti-Semitic hysteria by the Polish Communist regime. In late sixties Polish Jews were leaving Poland. This mass exodus of Polish Jews from their beloved homeland was often taking place from the Warszawa Gdanska Railway Station called usually Dworzec Gdanski.
Gdanski Railway Station in Warsaw, from which they departed, was before, a part of the Holocaust. 26 years after transportations to East, the station become, the symbol of a new Jewish exile. Trains leaving Gdanski, were part of modern action transportation to West. Trains were thereafter arriving to Vienna, Paris, Rom and Stockholm, among other destinations. 15 thousands Polish Jews, suddenly without citizenship, with just a "one way" travel document (see memorial table - below that says: they left behind more than they had).
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| Memorial table at Gdanski Railway Station in Warsaw. It says: they left behind more than they had). Odjeżdżające z warszawskiego Dworca Gdańskiego pociągi w latach 1968-1970, tym razem na zachód, też wracały puste… |
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| Memorial table at Umschlag, just 660 meters from the Gdanski Railway Station in Warsaw. In memory of 310 000 deported and in Treblinka murdered Jews in 1942-1943. |
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| Gdanski Railway Station in Warsaw (F) and Umschlagplatz, 660 meters to the right from it. Trains with Jews departed from Umschlag to Treblinka as part of the Holocaust (1942-1943). 26 years later, after transportations to East and Treblinka ended, the station become, the symbol of a new Jewish exile. Trains leaving Gdanski, were part of modern action transportation to West (1968-1970). Trains from Warszawa were thereafter arriving to Vienna, Paris, Rom and Stockholm, among other destinations. White line is just 660 meters and conects Umschlagsplatz and Gdanski Railway station (Google Earth). |
