Five thousand Jews yesterday marched through the streets of Warsaw in solemn commemoration of the Jewish martyrs who died in the War?aw Ghetto uprising of 1943.
Youths in the uniforms of various Jewish organizations, Jewish soldiers and ?ormer partisans in the Polish and Soviet forces and children from Jewish orphanages ##arched behind hundreds of massed Polish and Jewish flags to the site of the razed ghetto. They also carried many banners and wreaths. A delegation of Zionists carried boxes of soil and ashes from the mass graves at Oswiecim, Majdanek and Treblinka,While a band played funeral music, various delegations laid wreaths at a monument in the ghetto which was erected in memory of the Jewish dead. A special detachment of the Polish Army participated in the ceremony which was witnessed by some 40,000 persons. Speakers, who included Mark Edelman, Stefan Grajek and Hersh Smollar, leaders of the uprising, pointed out that “the first German blood to be shed in Europe” during World War II “was on this spot four years ago when Jewish fighters took up arms against the Nazis.”
The names of two of the main streets of the ghetto were changed to honor the embattled Jews. Nalewski Street was renamed the Street of the Ghotto Heroes, while Gensha Street was changed to Mordechai Anielewitch Street, in honor of the leader of the committee which planned and executed the revolt. Special posts were erected to support the new street signs, because there is still no building or street posts in the area.
Several days ago unidentified fascists poured ink on the commemorative head-stone, but this was washed off before the ceremony. Otherwise, the ceremony went off quietly and apparently made a deep impression on the citizens of the city who lined the streets through which the Jews marched.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
