Bunker memorial at Ulica Mila 18
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| Street signs on the south side of Mila Street |
Famous as the headquarters bunker of the Jewish Fighting Organisation (ZOB), the bunker at 18 Mila Street was not constructed by the ZOB. It was made by a group of underworld smugglers in early 1943. By chance a command company of the ZOB arrived there, and it became the tactical headquarters for the Ghetto Uprising. The smugglers who had built it helped the ZOB as guides. There were 300 people in the bunker when it was attacked on 8th May 1943, three weeks after the start of the Uprising. The smugglers surrendered, but the ZOB command, including Mordechaj Anielewicz, the leader of the Uprising, stood firm. German and Ukrainian troops threw tear gas into the bunker to force the occupants out. Anielewicz, his wife and many of his staff committed suicide rather than surrender, though a few fighters managed to get out of a rear exit. Although it is often claimed that Mila 18 was the last bunker in the Ghetto to fall, this was not the case. SS General Jürgen Stroop's men took 30 bunkers on 12th May alone.
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The height of the mound is said to mark the level of rubble left after the levelling of the Ghetto (left). The path around the mound marks the width of the Mila 18 house. The bunker was not wide, but it was three buildings long. No building numbered Mila 18 now exists. This photograph was taken looking west, with Mila Street to the left
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| The memorial stone on top of the mound |