Józefa Lewartowskiego

Many people in Warsaw know the story of Jozef Lewartowski. He was a leader and fighter. You can learn more about him right here on the street named after him – Jozef Lewartowski Street in Warsaw. It is a small street near the old Jewish Quarter. Jozef Lewartowski was born in 1895 in a little town called Bielsk Podlaski. He was a Jewish man. He became a political activist in his early 20s. He was a strong supporter of Poland’s Communist Party. The Party was not popular in the 1920s and 1930s. Jozef got into trouble with the law and was arrested several times. He spent many years in Polish prisons. He also fled the country to Moscow. He returned to Poland in the 1930s. During the 1930s, he was again arrested and imprisoned for organizing workers’ strikes. He was finally released in 1939. In December 1941 he was sent to the Warsaw ghetto as a representative of the Polish Workers’ Party.
In the Warsaw ghetto, he helped to form the Anti-Fascist Bloc, a resistance group fighting for the survival of the Jewish population as well as against the Nazi regime. Jozef Lewartowski was killed by the Gestapo in Warsaw in 1942.
He was shot while trying to escape from the ghetto. His body was never found. He is remembered as a brave and dedicated man who fought for the rights of the working classes and for the survival of his people. His life and his actions show the strength of his principles. This street is one of several places in Warsaw that remember Jozef Lewartowski. In 2017 the name of the street was changed from Jozef Lewartowski to Marek Edelman, but many people, especially the residents of the area, continue to call this street by its previous name. This is a tribute to this great man.