For centuries, Poland was the world’s most important centre of the Jewish diaspora. At the end of the eighteenth century, nearly 80% of all Jews lived here. Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, Poland had almost 3.5 million Jewish inhabitants, more than 10% of the country’s total population. Warsaw was particularly significant in the interwar period, when its Jewish community was the second largest in the world after New York. The Second World War brought the destruction of this vibrant community and its unique culture.
The Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw is one of the largest of its kind in the world. Established at the beginning of the nineteenth century, it covers an impressive 33 hectares and contains around 200,000 tombstones. This historic site is one of the most valuable monuments in Warsaw and in Poland. During the war, the cemetery lay directly beside the ghetto. It contains mass graves of people who died from hunger and disease or were killed in mass executions. The grave of Marek Edelman, the last surviving leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, is also located here. Numerous symbolic graves and memorials—including the Janusz Korczak Monument and the Children’s Memorial—commemorate the suffering and victims of the Holocaust.
The Nożyk Synagogue is Warsaw’s only pre-war synagogue that remains in active use. Of the more than 400 synagogues and prayer houses that existed in the city before the Second World War, it is the only one that continues to serve as the main synagogue of the Jewish community and as the seat of the Chief Rabbi of Poland. The neighbourhood around the synagogue is the vibrant centre of Jewish life in the city. The Nożyk Synagogue is centrally located at 7 Twarda Street and can be visited.
Opened in 2013, the POLIN Museum impresses visitors with its modern architecture and extensive exhibition. Built beside the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, it presents the multifaceted history of Jews in Poland and in neighbouring historical regions that are now part of Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. Particularly fascinating are the exhibits devoted to shtetl culture—small towns with predominantly Jewish populations—and the presentation of the social, economic and cultural life of Jewish communities in Central Europe. For many centuries, Poland was home to the world’s largest Jewish diaspora.
This moving memorial route connects 22 important locations commemorating the life, suffering and resistance of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. The principal sites include the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, the Anielewicz Bunker Mound and the Umschlagplatz Monument. Each stop tells stories of courage, pain and hope.
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