Jewish Warsaw – Part I: Pre-war Warsaw

On the eve of the WW2 Warsaw was a vibrant center of Jewish life and culture. It was the world second largest Jewish community after New York, home to almost 370 000 Jews, one third of city’s population. This world was almost completely annihilated during the Holocaust, with most of the community murdered by Germans in the gas chambers of Treblinka, few hours away from Warsaw. But the Jewish life, though much ruined, has managed to survive. Join us on an amazing journey of discovering the richness of prewar life, horrors of the Holocaust and the energy of contemporary Jewish life, still in process of reshaping itself.We will start our walk in the very heart of the city, where we will see the monument to Janusz Korczak, the famous educator who devoted his life to children. Then we will visit the area around Grzybowski Square with the only preserved pre-war synagogue built by the Nożyk family. We will walk along Próżna Street, one of the few streets where 19th century tenement houses are still standing. We will also discover the remains of Nalewki Street, once a symbol of Jewish Warsaw with hundreds of shops, factories, bookstores and workshops.