Rare photos!

Rare photos from World War II Jewish ghetto shown in Warsaw. Never-before-seen photos of the Warsaw ghetto - from a roll of film shot by a Polish firefighter under the noses of the occupying Germans - were unveiled to journalists.

A glimpse into the horrific scenes

Although taken during the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising when Jews rose up against the Nazi occupiers, they do not depict the actual fighting. But they do show apocalyptic scenes of buildings on fire, deserted streets strewn with rubble and German soldiers escorting Jews to their deaths.

Capturing deportation of Jews

Some of his father's other images, including photos capturing the Jews being deported are held by the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington.

Holocaust from a different perspective

The museum's historians said that the value of the pictures lies in their being the only known images from the ghetto uprising that were not taken by the German forces and which, therefore, were not shot with the intention of serving Nazi propaganda.

Putting their lives at risk

Grzywazewski, then a 23-year-old whose family members were risking their lives to save Jews, took his camera into the ghetto and secretly photographed Jews being led to Umslagplatz, the holding area where the occupying German forces held them before deportation to the Treblinka death camps. The images also show burning buildings.

Taking photos clandestinely

Some of the photos are blurred or not framed well, indicating that Grzywazewski, who was an avid photographer was taking them surreptitiously.

A detailed photo

The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews says the discovery adds more pictures to the deportation sequence. Furthermore, the ones in Washington are prints that have been cropped, with the newly discovered negatives offering more details.

33 photos shot by Zbigniew Grzywaczewski

The roll of film, which includes 33 photos from the ghetto, was shot by Zbigniew Grzywaczewski, a non-Jewish Pole and firefighter.

It was only rediscovered in Dec 2022 by his son, Maciej.

Warsaw Uprising

It began on 19 Apr 1943, after German troops and police entered the ghetto to deport its surviving inhabitants. Some 750 young Jewish fighters armed with just pistols and other light arms attacked a German fore more than three times larger.

In their last testaments, they said they knew they were doomed but wanted to die at a time and place of their own choosing.

Courtesy. Ex-files in the NIE.

Tailpiece.

Got up at 6, the chores and was ready by a quarter to 10.

Our fruit basket was home-delivered.

Maman desires that I attend the program tomorrow at the Kottayam Public Library. He made Gopu also to speak on his behalf.