ABOUT THE DISTRICT

Muranow towering

from the layers of dying

foundation leans against the bone

cellars in craters

cleared from screaming

there`s a stillness of cleared moans

the black glow of a dead fire

Muranow stands firm

on the burial of memory

most letters find their way

and me – like him – raised

on the surface of ashes

under the stars from broken glass

I wish I could only be silent

but standing silent I`m a liar

I wish I could only walk

but while walking I`m trampling

Jerzy Ficowski

The most popular photograph of Muranow dated 1945, shortly after the end of WWII, features the tower of St Augustine church at Nowolipki St. This is the only point towering over the sea of rubble; this iconic photo can be seen in the vestry building close to the church. Here`s yet another version:

The church survived thanks to being converted by the Germans into the warehouse after the fall of the uprising in ghetto. Besides this church, the only discernible elements of the urban structure of the pre-war quarter, were warehouse buildings at Stawki St, and burn-out walls of the military prison at the corner of Zamenhofa and Gęsia.

After the fall of uprising in ghetto, and blowing up Great Synagogue at Tłomackie St. in May 1943, Germans have made their plans in respect of Muranow, therefore demolition works of burn-out buildings were started without delay. Exemplary quarter for the government employees consisting of building flats, parks, and detached houses was to be erected on this place. However, the projects were not implemented because of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.

Those who had seen Muranow before the fall of Warsaw Uprising of 1944, and visited the area after Warsaw was liberated, for example Michał Zylberberg, author of„A Warsaw Diary 1939-1942”, were entirely lost. They felt as if being in completely strange place. „It was quiet as in grave. Entire area was covered by thick layer of snow (...) I found no sign of things which existed before. It was incredible and frightening“ (Zylberberg in „Getto Warszawskie – przewodnik po nieistniejącym mieście, by B.Engelking, J.Leociak)..

The postcard from 1948, photo: Jan Bułhak and Son

The area of 2.5 square kilometers – corresponding to the former northern district of the city- was covered by approximately 3-4 million cubic meters of rubble, rising up to 6-7 meters above the street level. It was precisely calculated that cleaning up the area, would take 4 years, 10 thousand workers, 420 carriages and 4 train engines working non-stop.

The propaganda poster, showing that the amount of rubble in Muranow was the size of 60 Prudential skyscrapers

Thanks to these calculations (presently it is impossible to decide if not overestimates), city authorities decided, arguing in terms of „economic reasons“, not to clean up the area, but to erect new dwellings on the 3-4 meters high layer of rubble, de facto remains of the ghetto buildings. Spatial plan for reconstruction of Warsaw elaborated under of chief city architect Josef Signalin in February and March 1945, divided the city into three categories. „Areas of former ghetto“ were allocated into third category „unlimited conditions“, together with destroyed buildings and those designed for demolition.

Tons of rubble at Gęsia (nowadays Anielewicza) street

...and Nalewki street

It would be hard to expect different decision. Rubbles covering Muranow, woven with corners of houses and bits of rails scattered from time to time, occupied too large area. There was no possibility to leave the area intact. In addition, it was in the centre of the city ! Ideal space for the architectural utopia to come true. Further to „economic reasons“, the argument of intact under-the-street infrastructure spoke in favour, and yet another one, which nowadays sounds hilarious „moving downtown closer to working people, relegated under capitalist system into distant and primitive suburbia („Stolica“ monthly from 1949).

Typical Muranow after-war landscape

New Muranów, „magnificent quarter of new life in Socialist Poland“, erected especially for working citizens, was presented as counter-point to previous „magnate- owned feudal city jurisdictions, and then district of racial hatred“. Adolf Ciborowski in „Warszawa o zniszczeniu i odbudowie miasta (Interpress, Warszawa, 1969) wrote „Builders got the possibility, dreamt of by majority of world urbanists: freedom to use city area for the needs of newly planned city. Freedom limited only by the reasons of economy, resulting from the direct costs of construction and exploitation“.

New crossroads (Anielewicza and Bohaterów Getta streets) 

Eleonora Bergman in her article „Dzielnica Północna w Warszawie – miasto w mieście?” („Przywracanie pamięci. Rewitalizacja zabytkowych dzielnic żydowskich w miastach Europy Środkowej”, Wyd. Międzynarodowe Centrum Kultury, Kraków, 2008 r.) points out that reconstruction of even a fragment of former Muranow was not considered, not for a while. No one asked the questions about ethical aspect of building housing development on the graves. „I have found no trace of such doubts in serious literature  - Jacek Leociak phd, coauthor of „Getto warszawskie. Przewodnik po nieistniejącym mieście.” (interview with Rafał Jabłoński „Tylko tam nikt nie wrócił”, „Życie Warszawy”, 18 April 2008 r.)

 The historian adds, that although entire Warsaw was rebuilt on the graves, families on the aryan side exhumed bodies of their relatives, there was noone to do so in the ghetto. Below rubbles, there were intact foundations and cellars of pre-war buildings. Mary Berg recollects in her „Pamiętnik z getta warszawskiego“, extensive network of tunnels and corridors, where numerous inhabitants perished during uprising in ghetto. Leonciak says: „This area is one great cemetery. No systematic exhumations were carried out. If one digs a hole, he finds dead bodies. During construction of Arkadia commercial gallery, collective grave was found. This place was located outside ghetto, but most probably, Germans buried here the bodies of those shot at Umschlagplatz. There are corpses below the surface in the cellars, they were not dug out after the war“.

Jerzy Ficowski, poet and writer, author of the poem on Muranow, researcher of the culture of Polish Jewry, was well aware of this. In conversation with Krzysztof Czyżewski from years 2000-2001, he recollects the concept of the fictionalised story about underground city, where under new buildings „Robinsons of ghetto“ still live, inhabitants who saved their lives, hiding in cellars and corridors after the fall of uprising. „I remember that this was supposed to be the poem on underground hidings with deliveries of fresh air and water, constructed by Jews, notably more affluent, hide-outs with air conditioning, electricity, somewhere under the house, where they survived the worst time and came out once it is possible. Then, I thought, that under this vast area of rubble, where new quarter of Muranow was to be built, there exists such sanctuary, underground room, people staying there, where Germans never reached, and which under the city lives on, just like the undiscovered tomb in Egyptian pyramids. I decided at the time, not to write frightening stories on such topics and abandoned the idea. However, few words were useful after many years“ (Krzysztof Czyżewski, Rozmowy po drugiej stronie muru, Tygodnik Powszechny, 2005)