My name is Tomasz Kubicki. I am a graduate in historical studies of the University Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski in Warsaw, and actually, I’m working on my doctoral dissertation. I specialised in World War II and in all the details that concern JEWISH and POLISH NATIONS during the last century.
I also cooperate with one of the oldest historical publishing houses in Poland – Bellona, where my book – Pod obuchem zagłady (In the flames of destruction) was published. In the book, I revealed the results of my surveys in the national archives. What – and to what extent – did the press of the Polish underground state transfer to public opinion information about the plight of Jews in General Government. In my second book – Getto warszawskie 1943 (Warsaw ghetto 1943) I grapple with the attitude of Poles toward the Jewish uprising in Warsaw in 1943. I was also responsible for the scientific proofreading of Martin Winstone’s book – The Holocaust Sites of Europe, which will soon be available in Polish.
Themes such as Warsaw and Cracow history, ten centuries of Jewish legacy in Polish lands, German occupation of Poland, Warsaw uprising 43 and 44, and the like are of particular importance to me.
I live in Warsaw, on my website, you will find six different tours of Jewish Warsaw. However, my activities are available across the whole country. You are able to create your own tour around Poland, with my help to coordinate the details.
JEWISH WARSAW TOUR: JEWISH HERITAGE TOUR – STANDARD
BACKGROUND:
Jews arrived in Warsaw one day at the beginning of the XV century, and one day after the pogroms were not allowed to stay there any longer. The long period of Warsaw’s Jewish peregrination had begun. Many periods, events, experiences, aspirations, and disappointments, times of fighting and peace, but it was worth it to be patient and persistent. Warsaw opened its gates to Jews and they also received constitutional rights. It was estimated that just before war broke out, over 380.000 people of Jewish origin lived in Warsaw – the second largest population in the world. During this Jewish Warsaw tour, you will enter the invisible world of Jewish Warsaw. We will take a stroll along the preserved traces of the past.
TOUR DESCRIPTION:
We start our sightseeing from the Nożyk Synagogue – now the only survivor of the war of 400 synagogues and houses of prayer. After this, we stroll around Grzybowski Square, where there was once a marketplace and some of the buildings are still a reminder of the Jewish merchants and crafters. This place, Próżna Street, introduces us to XX century history and September 1939, when the city was besieged. Next, we go through a few fragile remnants from the occupation, remains of the ghetto wall, where we are confronted with the period 1939 – 1941. Contrary to these grim realities, we also see a “Children’s Hospital”, a few tenements which survived, and streets where once breweries, distilleries, shops, stores, and factories were functioning. So Śliska and Żelazna Street show us the vitality of the past. Then, remembering we are still in Small Ghetto, we come to Waliców Street with its ruins of a Jewish tenement house, and Krochmalana Street. In this atmosphere of old streets and crumbling buildings, the famous Jewish writers, poets –Signer, Kacenelson, and Perec – speak to us. Chłodna Street is such a crucial street – a wooden footbridge installed here by the Germans became a symbol of the suffering of the Jews – which introduces us to 1942. After viewing a few buildings connected with the period of the occupation, we are directed towards a truly unique place, the Jewish Cemetery at Okopowa Street, where we visit several graves. The next place gives us a chance to contemplate the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto; The Umschlagplatz was a place from where the Jews were deported in cattle waggons to the Treblinka extermination camp. Now, the monument commemorates these 300 000 victims. After this, we stop beside the “bunker” headquarters of the Jewish Combat Organisation at Miła 18. On 8 may 1943, General Stroop, after a long search, discovered the location of this bunker. Anielewicz, Commander of the Jewish Uprising in 1943, and other militants committed suicide as had their ancestors nineteen centuries before in Massada. Muranów,once the very heart of Jewish Warsaw, is the last place on our tour. Several stones and monuments here bring back the story of the past and the Museum of the history of Polish Jews is also located here.
SEE ALL JEWISH TOURS:
http://www.jewishwarsaw.pl/warsaw-tours/
POLIN TOURS:
TREBLINKA TOUR
TOUR DESCRIPTION:
This place is unimaginable, and its essence lies outside of understanding, as if it were from another world, but wasn’t. The Germans used a mechanical digger to raise the camp area to the ground, and after this, they sowed plants. They knew that they were losing the war and they wanted to hide their inhumanity, every trace of these terrible crimes.
During our tour we let our imagiantion work: there was a ramp, here, tracks, sorting barracks, showers, in the distance the chambers. Here, people had come in the overloaded cattle cars, some of them on the edge of their endurance or already dead, others still alive. Among them were those who still believed, even if their inner voice alerted them, that they would take a job. This is what Germany said at the Umschlagplatz, in Warsaw – “it’s just a resettlement, you’ll work in the East”. Some of them had their house keys, they believed that they would return to their homes.
For ADDITIONAL LODIN TOURS, PLEASE VISIT
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