On April 22, 2023, installations symbolically marking the place where civilians hid during the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising stood in six locations in Muranów. In this way, the POLIN Museum, together with the SENNA collective, wants to restore the memory of these places to urban reality. By doing so, we are also reminding the civilians - the most numerous group participating in the 1943 uprising. We have selected 6 figures who are at the same time heroes and heroines of the temporary exhibition "Around us a sea of fire".
A Polytechnic graduate, most likely from Warsaw, he is mainly referred to as ‘Engineer Goldman’. He was thirty years old at most. He lost almost all his relatives in the ghetto, except for brother whose name we do not know.
In September 1942, Goldman found employment at the brush makers’ shop. He was responsible for a team of craftsmen who, among other things, fixed installations, doors and locks damaged during the Great Liquidation Action.
He and his brother planned to escape from the ghetto. Together with a group of friends, they dug a tunnel leading to the basement on the “Aryan” side of the wall. Goldman procrastinated—he wanted to earn more money in the ghetto to be able to maintain himself and his brother on the “Aryan” side.
On Eng. Cederbaum’s commission, he supervised the construction of a bunker for 25 people in exchange for a place for himself and his brother. He constructed a shelter in the basement of one of the buildings within the grounds of the brush makers’ shop, most likely at 34 Świętojerska St. It consisted of a bedroom, a kitchen, a storage and a common room. It had a water intake and electricity connection from three different sources, just in case. The entrance was masked by a mobile wall weighing two tons. The bunker was ready for use in February 1943.
The outbreak of the Uprising thwarted the escape plan—the tunnel was discovered and blown up. The Goldmans hid in Eng. Cederbaum’s bunker. After the hideout had been discovered by the Germans on 10 May 1943, the brothers hid in the ruins of the ghetto with other groups, some of them armed.
Towards the end of June 1943, they escaped through the sewers and hid on the “Aryan” side. We know they benefited from the aid provided by the Jewish National Committee (ŻKN)—both appear on the lists of people who received assistance. The last mention of the two brothers dates back to January 1944.
Goldman’s testimony titled 75 Days in the Burning Ghetto, written down in November 1943, survived in the archive of Adolf Berman and Basia Temkin-Berman,4 who were members of the ŻKN and Żegota Council to Aid Jews that provided help to those hiding on the “Aryan” side. Adolf Berman’s note referring to Goldman’s testimony reads: “The account is authentic and most interesting. The author perished.”
MORE:
Without a Shadow. Jewish hideouts in the Warsaw Ghetto: Anonymous author
Without a Shadow. Jewish hideouts in the Warsaw Ghetto: Hena Kuczer (Krystyna Budnicka)
Without a Shadow. Jewish hideouts in the Warsaw Ghetto: A group of people
Without a Shadow. Jewish hideouts in the Warsaw Ghetto: Stella Fidelseit
Without a Shadow. Jewish hideouts in the Warsaw Ghetto: Leon Najberg
