Gdansk, Poland
Gdansk, PolandiStock

Activists in Gdansk, Poland are making a final appeal to build a memorial on the land where the city’s Jewish ghetto once existed with time reportedly running out as the site is being increasingly redeveloped.

The former ghetto site is now a rundown area on Granary Island in the center of the city, which was formerly used by the Red Mouse Granary. In 1940, the site became Gdansk’s Jewish ghetto, where 600 Jews were deported to before being transferred to concentration camps.

But starting in 1990, Granary Island has undergone rapid development, including restaurants, apartment buildings and hotels, becoming an increasingly popular section of the city, according to the Jewish Chronicle.

The site of the former Red Mouse Granary is owned by the municipality. Construction is planned for the area.

Polish poet Grzegorz Kwiatkowski, the grandson of a concentration camp survivor, told the news outlet that activists have been calling for the city to enact a memorial to the ghetto but have been ignored.

He urged the city to use the former granary site to build a memorial.

Gdansk also does not have a formal Holocaust monument except for a Kindertransport memorial.

Kwiatkowski said that the former granary site may be the last chance to build a Holocaust monument with developments taking over the island.

(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)