Ulica Zamenhoffa was an extremely crowded place, mainly with merchants and shopkeepers from the nearby streets of Gęsia and Nalewki. At that time, a tramline ran along its length. On the site where the POLIN Museum now stands, the Crown Artillery barracks were built on the orders of King Stanisław August. The building survived World War II. It was one of the few surviving buildings following the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto. It was here that, in 1944, Emanuel Ringelblum was shot. He was one of the creators of the underground Warsaw ghetto archive.