On 22 July 1942, by the German order that the Judenrat was forced to announce, the Warsaw Ghetto Jews were to prepare for the "resettlement to the East". Temporarily exempt would be personnel of German companies and members of the ghetto administration.
The first transport, which departed late that day, removed over 6,000 people. In the next weeks, around 300,000 residents were rounded up in the streets or at homes, sent to the Umschlagplatz collection point, and from there, deported to the gas chambers of Treblinka – because that was what the "resettlement to the East" was a euphemism for. Thousands others were shot on the spot or at the Jewish cemetery, and by 21 September, when the transports halted, the ghetto population had dropped by nearly 80%.
On 22 July, the Jewish Historical Institute holds in Warsaw an annual March of Remembrance that everyone is welcome to join. This year’s event, the 10th, will be devoted to Jewish teachers – such as Abraham Lewin, Emanuel Ringelblum, Eliasz Gutkowski, Izrael Lichtensztajn or Stefania Szwajgier – who even in the ghetto reality never stopped practising their profession, and accompanied their students to the Umschalgplatz and Treblinka. Equally commemorated will be Polish educators, assisting their colleagues from across the wall.
The Institute of National Remembrance will be represented by its Deputy President Mateusz Szpytma.