The tour description

Just before the WW2 Poland was home of 3.5 million of Jews which represented some 10% of the total population of the country. The Holocaust took place mainly in Polish Nazi occupied area and resulted in extermination of almost entire Jewish minority. Memorial sites of the Jewish heritage and Holocaust places can be visited through out the country, including the heroic Warsaw ghetto -the biggest in Nazi occupied Europe and the first one to resist during Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 1943....

PART OF THE TOUR:

1. SIENNA STREET - GHETTO WALL

The Small ghetto areaOn Nov. 16, 1940 the ghetto was enclosed by 3-meter-high walls. The wall often ran between properties and made use of the already existing internal walls there dividing the houses and courtyards. Some 450,000 Jews were imprisoned on 307 hectares (758 acres). Some fragments of the ghetto wall survived in Warsaw till today.

2. TWARDA STREET - NOŻYK SYNAGOGUE (The small Ghetto area)

Built in 1898-1902 as a private prayer house by Zelman and Rywka Nożyk, it was later given to the Warsaw Jewish Community. Of the hundreds of prayer houses in Warsaw before the war, it is the only surviving synagogue still in use. The building also houses the offices of the Warsaw Jewish Community and the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland. The synagogue is open for sightseeing every day except Sabath.

3. PRÓŻNA STREET AND GRZYBOWSKI SQUARE (The small Ghetto area)

As a part of the Warszawa Jewish Ghetto during World War II set up by the Nazis the Próżna street has a tragic history. Most of the Ghetto buildings were totally destroyed and only a few of themare left. Although it’s unique because this is the only street in the Jewish Warsaw where tenement buildings have been preserved on both sides of a street.

At nearby Grzybowski square one can see one of the 3 catholic churches located in the ghetto, in which many Jews were saved by a local priest Marceli Godlewski

4. MONUMENT TO THE GHETTO HEROES

(The Large Ghetto area)

On the fifth anniversary of the outbreak of the Ghetto Uprising, April 19, 1948, a monument by Natan Rapaport was unveiled. On the west side is a sculpture symbolizing battle, and on the east is a relief depicting the martyrdom of the Jewish people. The Swedish labradorite stone was originally ordered by the Nazis for their planned monuments to the Third Reich's victory, but donated to the Warsaw monument after the war. Nearby is an older monument of 1946 by architect Leon Marek Suzin. On a tablet of red granite, reminiscent of a sewer manhole, is an inscription in Polish, Yiddish and Hebrew: "To those who fell in the unprecedented heroic battle for the dignity and freedom of the Jewish people, for a free Poland and for man's liberation. From the Polish Jews."

5. PATH OF REMEMBRANCE

(The Large Ghetto area)

The Path is marked by blocks of black granite, on which are engraved a description of events and the names of people active in the ghetto. The Path leads from Umschlagplatz, past the Bunker Monument to the Jewish Fighters Organization (ŻOB), to the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes. The blocks are dedicated to the memory of poet I. Kacenelson, pedagogue J. Korczak, rabbi I. Nissenbaum, ŻOB courier F. Płotnicka, Jewish Military Union (ŻZW) commander P. Frenkel, Poalej Syjon (a leftist, Zionist party) member M. Majerowicz, ŻOB commander M. Anielewicz, Haszomer Hacair (scouting association) member A. Wilner, Bund activist S. Zygielbojm, M. Klepfisz, Polish Social Party activist J. Lewartowski, and historian E. Ringelblum. The Path was created in 1988

6. UMSCHLAGPLATZ (The Large Ghetto area)

Transports of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to Treblinka death camp began on July 22, 1942. A monument by Hanna Szmalenberg and Władysław Klamerus was built here in 1988. Everyday 5,000 to 6,000 people were sent to their death. As the inscription on the monument informs us: " Over 300,000 Jews followed this path of suffering and death in 1940-1943 from the ghetto created in Warsaw to the Nazi death camps." Four hundred and forty-eight first names, from Abel to Żanna, were engraved in the wall as a symbol of the approx. 450,000 Jews imprisoned in the Warsaw Ghetto. On the wall of a neighbouring building a verse from the Book of Job, 16:18, is engraved in Polish, Yiddish and Hebrew: "O earth, cover not my blood, and let my cry find no resting place."

7. JEWISH CEMETERY (The Large Ghetto area)

Jewish cemetery was opened in 1806. It contains the graves of more than 250,000 people and is one of the very few Jewish cemeteries still in use in Poland today. The tombs range from colossal Gothic follies to simple engraved stones. The site was left almost untouched during the war, the reason being that, unlike in smaller Polish towns, the Nazis didn't need the materials for building new roads. However, some stones were removed from the graves and stored on-site for possible later use. Around 150,000 gravestones have survived in it. It is the resting place for people well-known in the history of the Jewish people and in the history of Warsaw and Poland.

Costs:

             Grup size       Price per person

               1 pax                  180 EUR

               2 pax                    90 EUR

               3 pax                    60 EUR

               4 pax                    45 EUR

            5-12 pax                   40 EUR

          13-18 pax                   35 EUR

          19-25 pax                   30 EUR

          26-34 pax                   20 EUR

          35-45 pax                   15 EUR

Price includes: guiding service, tax, transportation, parking fees

Additional costs:

• Jewish Historical Institute - film & exhibition (optional) - 2.5 EUR* per person

• Jewish cemetery - 2 EUR* per person

• Nozyk synagogue - 1.5 EUR* per person

* admissions for 2010

This itinerary is only an example which we can change according to your needs. Please contact us so we tailor a programme exclusively for you.