Monument to the Victims of Simons’ Passage (The Krasinski Gardens, on the north of Bohaterów Getta Street)
In this place, at the intersection of Długa and Nalewek Streets, there was a modern, reinforced concrete, elegant shopping mall. It was built at the beginning of the 20th century by the Berlin merchant Albert Simons. Simons’ Passage became fast the main department store of the Jewish district. In September 1939, during the defence of Warsaw, the Passage was first bombed. In March 1943, there was the Operation Arsenal (Akcja pod Arsenałem) near the building.
During the Warsaw Uprising the Simons’ Passage was a Polish redoubt defending access to the Old Town. There was an insurgent sanitary point in its cellars and many civilians were protected there. The building was bombarded and fired several times. On August 31st, the building collapsed after bombs dropped by German planes. More than 200 people were killed under the ruins: mostly soldiers from ‘’Chrobry I” battalion who were defending the passage. There were also civilians who sheltered there. Only fragments of reinforced concrete columns of the passage today. In the ruins of collapsed cellars, there are remains of military and civilian victims of insurrection, lying to this day.