Traces of Jewish Culture from Krakow
Krakow, Poland
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Trip Type: Half-day Tours
Duration: 4 hours
Explore Krakow’s rich Jewish heritage and culture on a 4-hour minivan and walking tour with an expert guide. Jews comprised a quarter of Krakow’s population before World War II, and its Kazimierz district was the center of Jewish life. Explore this now resurgent area as your guide charts its prewar and wartime days and how Steven Spielberg used it as a backdrop for his movie ‘Schindler’s List.’ View the Old Synagogue, and Remuh Synagogue and Cemetery, and visit Oscar Schindler’s Factory museum to learn about Krakow’s and its Jews’ darkest hours.
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Explore Krakow’s rich Jewish heritage and culture on a 4-hour minivan and walking tour with an expert guide. Jews comprised a quarter of Krakow’s population before World War II, and its Kazimierz district was the center of Jewish life. Explore this now resurgent area as your guide charts its prewar and wartime days and how Steven Spielberg used it as a backdrop for his movie ‘Schindler’s List.’ View the Old Synagogue, and Remuh Synagogue and Cemetery, and visit Oscar Schindler’s Factory museum to learn about Krakow’s and its Jews’ darkest hours.
Meet your guide at your central Krakow hotel or another central location. Then, board your air-conditioned minivan and set out on your tour of some of Krakow’s most resonant Jewish sites.
As a prelude, get a fascinating introduction to Krakow’s rich Jewish history and heritage. Jews played a key role in the development and culture of ‘Kroke’, as Krakow is known in Yiddish, and before WWII, comprised around a quarter of its population.
Travel to Kazimierz, the former Jewish district and home to synagogues, monuments and kosher restaurants. Walk through the elegant, lively streets of this resurgent area and gain insight into Jewish culture and customs.
Hear how the revered 16th-century rabbi Moses Isseries, known as Remuh, taught here, and how Steven Spielberg used the area in his movie Schindler’s List to depict the Jewish ghetto in nearby Podgorze. See sites recognizable from the movie and hear how the Nazis herded thousands of Kazimierz Jews into the ghetto prior to transporting them to death camps.
Enter the Old Synagogue, one of Europe’s oldest Jewish places of worship and Poland’s oldest surviving synagogue, and admire its splendid Gothic interior. Visit the active Remuh Synagogue and spend time in the Remuh cemetery, seeing the ornate headstones and of tomb of Moses Isseries.
View other sights and visit Oscar Schindler’s Factory, the museum housed in the original enamelware factory where Schindler employed Jewish workers, so protecting them from the Nazis.
Explore the exhibits chronicling pre-war and wartime Krakow, and view the displays and documents that tell Schindler’s and his workers’ stories during Krakow’s darkest hours.
Finish at the site of the inner city WWII Plaszow concentration camp. View the sombre granite memorial that honors the thousands of Jews and Poles imprisoned here and hear why the camp was situated here.
After around four hours, your tour concludes.
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