The Holocaust within the territory of occupied Poland was part of the Nazi plan of the extermination of Jews. Millions of people were killed in Nazi death camps located in the occupied Polish territory (Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Majdanek, Bełżec, Sobibór, Chełmno) or died in ghettos established in many occupied Polish towns. This route will enable you to learn about the fate of the Jewish community during the years of the Nazi occupation as these places still provide the testimony to the inhuman atrocities of that period.
Day 1
Warsaw
Tour around the city following the traces of the Jewish community and the martyrdom of Jews during the War. A visit to the site where the Jewish ghetto was located. It was the largest ghetto in occupied Europe and it was surrounded with a wall separating it from the other part of the city. People who used to live there suffered from starvation and epidemics. In April 1943, an uprising broke out in the ghetto. Although the ghetto was almost totally destroyed, there are still places that remember that time: the Jewish Cemetery, the Umschlagplatz, the Grzybowski Square with the Jewish Theatre, the Nożyk Synagogue and Złota Street, where remains of the
ghetto can be found, as well as the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes.
Day 2
Treblinka
North-east of Warsaw. In this extermination camp, which was the place of mass executions in the years 1941-1944, hundreds of thousands of Jews were murdered. The camp was surrounded with a high fence of barbed wire interwoven with the greenery to conceal what was happening inside. In a place where former gas chambers were located, there is a huge monument surrounded with thousands of symbolic gravestones representing villages, towns and countries from which victims were deported to Treblinka.
Day 3
Lublin
The Jewish community of Lublin was known all over the world due to its yeshiva, synagogues and rabbinic library, among other things. The yeshiva of Lublin was one of the largest and most prestigious rabbinical schools in the world. During the Second World War, the Jews of Lublin were deported to the extermination camps in Bełżec and Majdanek. The Majdanek Camp operated in the years 1941-1944. At present, it is a museum fenced with barbed wire, with watchtowers, barracks, an impressive monument and a mausoleum.
Day 4
Leżajsk
Visiting the Jewish cemetery with the grave of Tzadik Elimelech (one of the most outstanding members of the Hasidic movement, a philosopher and psychologist). At present, it is a place of pilgrimage for Jews from all over the world. Next, we visit Bełżec. The extermination camp in Bełżec was located in the south-eastern part of the district of Lublin. It operated during the period 1941-1943. Its location allowed the Nazis to change this place into a site of the mass murder of Jewish communities from the territories of both the contemporary Poland and Ukraine.
Tarnów
On the Jewish street possible to see a mezuzah affixed to a door frame or a bimah, which is the only remnant of the Old Synagogue, as well as a mikveh and the Jewish cemetery.
Day 5
Kraków
Kazimierz, which used to be a separate town in the past and now is a district of Krakow, was the centre of Jewish religion, culture and science before the war, as well as the home for the Jewish population of the city. Destroyed during the occupation, it has been reconstructed so as to enable the visitors to admire the renovated historic architecture and to experience the everyday life of Jews. Each corner of Kazimierz is a witness to the history of Polish Jews, noticeable in the system of narrow streets, synagogues and the Jewish cemetery. An opportunity to visit the Old Synagogue with the Museum, the Remuh Synagogue with its cemetery, as well as the Tempel Synagogue or the Isaac Synagogue. Transfer to the Podgórze District where there was the Krakow Ghetto, the Schindler’s Factory and the pharmacy „Pod Orłem” [„Under the Eagle”] which was run by the only Pole living in the ghetto until the end of its existence. Another place worth visiting is Płaszów, the former Nazi labour camp. An opportunity to learn about that time during a meeting with survivors of the Holocaust or with the Righteous Among the Nations (portraits of people who rescued Jews during the World War II)
Day 6
Auschwitz-Birkenau, the former concentration camp
The symbol of horror, brutality and cruelty. The camp was built for Polish citizens by Nazi Germans in 1940. In 1942 it became the main place of mass extermination of about one million Jews from the whole Europe, as well as many Poles, Romani, Soviet prisoners and victims of other nationalities. Ruins of gas chambers, miles of barbed wire, wooden barracks and the railway platform, where the former prisoners were unloaded, evoke the horrifying past. At present, photographs, documents obtained from the site, as well as tons of hair and shoes illustrate the scale of atrocities. Dinner at a Jewish restaurant with live klezmer music