Jewish Warsaw

This tour focuses on sites related to the more than 350,000 Jews who lived in Warsaw leading up to WWII, about 30 percent of the city's population and the largest Jewish community in Europe at the time. You visit the Nozyk Synagogue, the former Ghetto area, the Monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Heroes, and the Jewish Cemetery.

After meeting your guide, you begin your tour with a visit to the Nozyk Synagogue, the only synagogue in Warsaw to survive the war and still hold services today. The original building was constructed between 1898 and 1902, but it was badly damaged during German air raids in 1939. Located in what was the Small Ghetto, it was further damaged during the Warsaw Uprising. After the war, the property was returned to Warsaw's Jewish community, though a major renovation to restore its original appearance did not take place until 1977 to 1983.

Next you visit the former Ghetto area, which covers only about 2.5 percent of the city, even though Warsaw's Jewish population made up close to a third of the city's total before the war. Your guide will show you surviving remains of the original Ghetto walls and the location of the wooden footbridge that once connected the so-called Small and Large Ghettos. You then visit the Umschlagplatz Memorial, which sits at the site where an estimated 265,000 to 300,000 Jews were gathered for deportation to the Treblinka extermination camp. The memorial lists 400 of the most common Jewish-Polish first names of the era. Nearby is the Monument to the Warsaw Ghetto Heroes, unveiled in April 1948 on the fifth anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Finally you visit the Jewish Cemetery on Okopowa Street, established in 1806 and one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in Europe, holding an estimated 250,000 graves. Many who died from hunger or disease inside the Ghetto were buried here.

At the end of the tour, you are brought back to your hotel.