JEWISH HERITAGE TOURS

The memory about 3,3 million of Polish Jews before the Second World War which was to be erased by German Nazi and Russian Communist Regime is only now gradually coming back and is being incorporated into the history of Poland. Jewish genealogy travels and interest in Poland as a country are very helpful in researching and reshaping historical memory and contemporary Polish-Jewish relations.

For years Polish territory was linked with topic of Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camps only. Having the deepest respect and great knowledge about places connected with the Holocaust, we also try to tell the story of the rich world of Central European Jewry before the War. Although it was largely annihilated by the German Nazis, it partially survived in our historical memory of that time.

Without understanding the nine centuries of Jewish heritage in this country it is hard to understand the calamity of the Holocaust.

Shtetls, synagogues, cemeteries, beit ha midrashes are dotting Polish landscape and bear the reminiscence of Rabbinical sages, individual families, rich religious and political life of Polish Jews. All of that is waiting here to be re-discovered, preserved and brought back to public interest and heritage.

Those Jewish Heritage Tours are mainly aimed at individual travelers or student groups of various age and members of Jewish communities and organizations from the United States, Canada, Australia, Israel, Poland, Great Britain, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark. Taking into account the special needs of our clients we always shape the program to be a tailor-made offer.

EXEMPLARY ONE DAY ITINERARIES

EXEMPLARY 7 DAYS ITINERARY

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1

Krakow, Casimir & Wieliczka Salt Mine

  • Sightseeing of Krakow as a city (up to 5 hours): via Royal Route, Market Square, Jagiellonian University (here we will explore a site of the first Jewish kehilat in Krakow), the Wawel Castle (Courtyard-main square) and of course the former Jewish district of Kazimierz - with its synagogues and praying houses. You shall visit Remuh Synagogue and cemetery - it is the oldest, the smallest though the most renowned synagogue in the world thanks to the 16th century scholar Moses Isserles. This synagogue is the only still active place of worship for Cracow's Jews. Furthermore you will enter the Tempel Synagogue which is the newest and moorish adorned one - every year it hosts artists performing concerts for the Jewish Culture Festival. If time allows, we can also visit Kupa Synagogue with its rich painting decorations or Galicia Jewish Museum.
  • Lunch break
  • Transfer to Wieliczka
  • Visit to the Salt Mine in Wieliczka - you will have a chance to explore one of the biggest Polish tourist attractions, the oldest Salt Mine in Europe, inscribed in UNESCO's 1st World List of Cultural and Natural Heritage. The visiting of the 20 historic chambers, reaching 327 m deep, connected by 2 kilometers of passages lasts approximately 2 hours, 15 minutes. The Mine is visited in groups.
  • Transfer to Cracow

Overnight in Cracow

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2

From Shtetl through Ghetto to Auschwitz. History of life and death

  • Visit to Podgorze, part of Cracow changed into Ghetto by the Natzis during WW II. Following the traces of Schindler List and visit to the Schindler's Factory.
  • Drive through territory of Plaszow former Labour Camp in the vicinity of Cracow. Transitory Camp for Hungarian Jews on their way to Auschwitz.
  • Transfer from Cracow through Monowitz (former IG Farben) to Auschwitz Museum
  • Visit to Auschwitz I Museum Exhibition - Concentration Camp and international symbol of Holocaust.
  • Coffee/lunch break
  • Visit to Birkeanu Museum Exhibition - Extermination Camp
  • *Optional visit to the recently restored Synagogue in Oswiecim town (Auschwitz) and Jewish Education Center. Possibility of watching documental movies from pre-war Oswiecim (shtetl).
  • Transfer from Oswiecim to Cracow

Overnight in Cracow

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3

Krakow – Kazimierz Dolny – Lublin

  • Drive from Cracow to Kazimierz Dolny (app. 4 hours – 300 km)
  • Lunch in Kazimierz and a visit to the town, synagogue and Jewish cemetery together with exceptional lapidarium erected form the regained macebas
  • Drive from Kazimierz to Lublin (app. 1 hour – 70 km)
  • Lublin Visit: Old Town Lublin with the Market Square and NN Theather and documentation Center; Chohamei Lublin Yeshiva, Old and New Jewish Cemeteries, visit to Brama Grodzka and places connected with logistics of Action Reinchard (Treblinka, Sobibor and Belzec)

Overnight in Lublin

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4

Majdanek – Treblinka

  • Visit to Majdanek Museum (former Nazi German Concentration Camp)
  • Drive from Lublin/Majdanek to Treblinka (app. 4 hours – 230 km ). On the way we will make few stops in interesting places like: Kozlowka – Polish Nobility Palace housing now the museum of Social Realism; Lubartow – Jewish cemetery; if time allows we will make a little detour to Wlodawa to visit one of the best preserved synagogue complex in Poland and the nearby territory of Sobibor Camp.
  • Arrival and visit to Treblinka Monument (former Nazi German Extermination Camp)

Overnight in the Mazowsze area

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5

Treblinka – Warsaw

  • Drive to Warsaw (app. 2 hours – 115 km)
  • Guided visit to Jewish heritage sites in Warsaw:
  1. Pieces of ghetto wall
  2. Authentic buildings left
  3. Nozyk synagogue - Jewish theater
  4. Monument of the Heroes of the Ghetto by Nathan Rapaport.
  5. Umschlagplatz - Deportation place of Warsaw Jews to Treblinka
  6. Jewish cemetery
  • Lunch break
  • Visit to the Jewish Historical Institute – we shall see three exhibitions here and a film showing scenes from ghetto time
  • Visit to Old Town of Warsaw

Overnight in Warsaw

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6

Warsaw – Lodz

  • Drive to Lodz (app. 3 hours – 160 km)
  • Visiting Lodz: Piotrkowska Street, the Poznanski Palaces, the Synagogue of Wolf Reicher, the New Jewish Cemetery - the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe, the former Lodz Ghetto territory with majority of buildings preserved, recently opened Holocaust Monument at the site of the former Radegast rail station, used for massive deportations to Chelmno, Auschwitz and other Nazi camps.

Overnight in Lodz

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7

Lodz – Cracow (via Northern Shtetls)

  • We shall visit 4-5 Shtetls (small towns which before WW II were predominantly inhabited by Jews). This is a very picturesque sightseeing track. The tour is enriched with Jewish music and excerpts from Jewish Literature depicting life in SHTETL.

Dzialoszyce - ruins of a synagogue and a monument to former Jewish Community;
Pinczow - renaissance synagogue;
Chmielnik - cemetery and synagogue;
* in a little town of Chmielnik there is a stylish and unique restaurant serving Jewish meals called "Cymes" where we can make a lunch break
Szydlow - medieval city complex with synagogue, church and castle. “Polish Carcassone”;
Checiny - small Jewish Town close to Kielce;

Overnight in Cracow