Umschlagplatz in Warsaw ghetto

Umschlagplatz is a Holocaust memorial in Śródmieście built as a white wall with a dark horizontal band running along its top edge. The wall carries 400 engraved Polish and Jewish first names, recalling children and adults who were deported from this spot.

The site served between 1942 and 1943 as the assembly point for over 300,000 Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto before their deportation to Treblinka. The current monument was erected in 1988 to remember these events.

The name comes from the German term for a freight loading point, where people were forced to wait for cattle trains. Visitors today place small stones on the memorial following Jewish custom and come here to remember those who were taken.

The site sits at the corner of Stawki and Karmelicka streets and forms part of the Memorial Route of Jewish Martyrdom and Struggle. You can reach the memorial on foot from the northern Old Town or by public transport to the Anielewicza stop.

A birch tree that grew on its own after the war behind the monument is visible through one of the openings in the wall. The tree was integrated into the memorial design as a symbol of life continuing after the trauma.