Debates have been going on in Warsaw over the Jewish community’s planned demolition of the Jewish community building at Twarda 6, one of the few 19th century buildings to survive in that part of the city, to make way for a modern tower office/hotel complex.
Ha’aretz reports on the story:
The old office block in question is situated in the heart of the city. Plans are in place to demolish the historical building, and replace it with a tower that would include residential and office spaces, as well as a hotel for ultra-Orthodox Jews – a project that is expected to attract significant revenues.
Heads of the community maintain that the building, which underwent certain changes in the 1990s, has practically lost its historical value, and – equally as important, they say – it no longer fulfills the needs of its institutions. [. . .] Those who oppose the demolition are trying to get the building heritage listed, which would prevent any changes being made to it.
The Virtual Shtetl web site cites an article by Tomasz Urzykowski, published Dec. 19 in Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper:
This historical building may be rescued only by entering it into the monuments’ register. Half a year ago, the provincial monuments’ restorer launched the relevant procedure but, upon the request of the Jewish Community, it was suspended so that the Community could collect all required documents. The proceedings are to be resumed at the beginning of the next year. The Community desires to preserve selected parts of the White Building and use them in the future investment. It plans to build an office building the design of which will fit in with the changing space in the close vicinity of the Community. The unique and most valuable elements of the building will remain. The architects who are famous for their desire to commemorate Jewish residents of the capital city, Hanna Szmalenberg (co-author of the Umschlagplatz monument), Tomasz Lec (the creator of the installation dealing with the footbridge over Chlodna St.) and the monuments’ overseer in the capital city Joanna Jaszunska, who opened a Facebook account for the White Building, do not want the White Building to be pulled down. All of these individuals have issued a declaration against the dismantling works, listing arguments in favor of the preservation of the building.
The building is one of the few in the district that survived World War II and the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto. Since the early 1990s, it has housed local Jewish organization offices and facilities. In 1994, during renovation works, a cache of documents was found shedding light on Jewish life in the WW2 Ghetto.
The collection of letters, notebooks, photographs, and other material was discovered during renovation work on a building that now houses the Warsaw offices of the Ronald Lauder Foundation, which runs a number of Jewish educational programs throughout Poland.
Prior to World War II and the forced ghettoization of Warsaw’s Jews, the building served as a Jewish medical clinic.
The retrieved documents were personal papers and memorabilia of the residents of two apartments that were in the building, the four-member Melchior family and a 20-year-old bachelor, Moses Dov Bursztyn.