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POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews

POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews: Our most recommended tours and activities

Warsaw: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews Ticket

1. Warsaw: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews Ticket

Learn about the centuries of Jewish history in Poland, from when the first communites settled in the country, right up until the present day. Explore 8 different galleries that will educate in an interactive way through visual and audio materials, as well as artifacts and paintings. Discover more about the most significant moments of Jewish history in the country. This includes the birth of the communities, the role of individual Jewish figures throughout Polish society, and how the Holocaust drastically impacted the Jews of Poland. See also how is their culture being revived after the Second World War.

Warsaw: 3-Hour Panoramic City Bus Tour with Pickup

2. Warsaw: 3-Hour Panoramic City Bus Tour with Pickup

Take a 3-hour comprehensive tour of the main highlights of Warsaw on a comfortable air-conditioned bus with a group of 15 participants at most. Learn about the somber and troubled history of the city by visiting some of the remaining sites and monuments to the uprisings and tragedies that took place in Warsaw during WWII. Your knowledgeable guide will also point out some iconic architectural wonders along the way.   Start your trip in the Royal Garden Lazienki, full of monuments that survived the war. The next stop will be the Monument to Warsaw Ghetto Heroes, which commemorates the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising during WWII. Continue on to Umschlagplatz, one of the most heartbreaking places in Warsaw: on this square, Nazis loaded Jewish people into carriages and transported them to Treblinka concentration camp.   Visit Warsaw’s Old Town, where the Royal Castle is located—destroyed during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944, the castle was rebuilt in 1984 and remains today one of the city’s most iconic landmarks. In the Old Town you’ll also drive by the Archcathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist, one of the most important churches in Warsaw. The building was created in a specific Masovian Gothic style and went through the same destruction and rebuilding as the Royal Castle.     Next, take a stroll through the Old Town with your guide—take in the magical atmosphere of the old town and explore Barbicam, a defensive wall made in the Gothic style with handmade red bricks. Finish off this historical tour with a visit to the Warsaw Uprising Monument, the most expressive and symbolic monument in Warsaw. Here, you can take a moment to process all that you’ve seen during the day.

Warsaw: 3-Hour Car Tour of Jewish Warsaw

3. Warsaw: 3-Hour Car Tour of Jewish Warsaw

It is impossible to understand Warsaw without looking at the history of Warsaw's Jews. Before WWII, Warsaw Jews made up 30% of Warsaw’s population. Great names that lived there include Literature Nobel Prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer, the pediatrician and children’s author Janusz Korczak, the founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio Samuel Goldwyn, and Wladyslaw Szpilman, the main hero of the "The Pianist" by Roman Polanski. After WWII, Jewish Warsaw ceased to exist, but you can still find remnants of the history of two nations in one country.  This 3-hour tour of Jewish Warsaw takes you to places where you can still admire the climate of pre-war multi-cultural Warsaw. You will visit the only synagogue which survived WWII and the Jewish cemetery where famous rabbis, Tzadiks, and Jewish families are buried. You will discover what the words menorah, Torah, Aron Kodesh and mezuzah mean. You will also learn about the symbolic meaning and architecture of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, the first and only museum in the world dedicated to the history and present of Polish Jews. Take a look at the synagogue, the last streets of Jewish Warsaw, the Jewish Cemetery, and the Museum of the History of Polish Jews with a local expert.

Warsaw: Skip The Line Polin Museum Private Guided Tour

4. Warsaw: Skip The Line Polin Museum Private Guided Tour

Tour the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews with skip-the-line entrance on a private guided tour and get a review of the over 1000 years-long history of Polish Jews. Learn from your guide about former nationalistic prejudices, how Nazi German soldiers were fought, and about the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto. On this tour, you will also have a chance to get familiar with present-day Jewish culture in Poland. During the extended 4-hour option, the tour continues with a stroll through the streets of where the Jewish community lived before World War II. Hear the sad story of when the ghetto walls were raised and about life for over 400 thousand Jews that lived in the 4-kilometer square area.

Warsaw: "Around Us a Sea of Fire" Exhibition Ticket

5. Warsaw: "Around Us a Sea of Fire" Exhibition Ticket

Learn about Warsaw's WWII history with this ticket to the temporary exhibition "Around Us a Sea of Fire" at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews which was organized in cooperation with the Holocaust Research Center to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Experience the moving stories of the remaining inhabitants of the ghetto, the approximately 50,000 civilian Jewish people that spent many weeks hiding in shelters and bunkers. Against the despair, loneliness, starvation, thirst and fear, they fought for each and every day, hour, and minute.  Reflect on their quiet resistance, which was just as important as the resistance of those with guns in their hands. Find out how they hid underground and thus refused to comply to German orders. Explore the story of the "invisible" ones that is retold in this exhibition. See what daily life in a bunker was like and hear about the conditions in the shelters and hideouts. Learn about the people who shared them and how they coped with their daily routines and basic physiological needs. Visit a recreation of the physical reality of being confined to a bunker: the darkness, the heat coming from burning buildings, the deficit of space and air, and the sounds that were often the only way to find out what was happening on the ground level. Immerse yourself in the relations developing between the people who hid together, on their feelings and emotions. Dive into the conflict created by these conditions, the fear, panic attacks, lack of hope, and the feeling of being abandoned, of the world’s indifference, and of a life forsaken.  Experience the craving for love and intimacy, the urge to act and take responsibility for others, the lust for life, the will to save oneself and one’s nearest and dearest, and opposing evil thorugh the building of a community whose members supported and protected.  The exhibition is devoted to a time in history and to the events that took place, and yet it will touches upon the dilemmas, attitudes and feelings. It poses questions that remain vital in today’s world. Like, how do we behave in the face of death? Where is the line between struggling to survive and surrendering? Ask questions like, what do people feel when they are excluded from society and experience indifference or disdain? Many people in the ghetto described themselves as "drowning," devoid of any hope for a rescue.  Take a deep dive into questions that still resonate today, like how do we oppose evil, how do we combat it, what is indifference and where does it lead us, and do we feel ashamed when we witness the suffering of others?

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What people are saying about POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews

Overall rating

4.6 / 5

based on 200 reviews

a unique experience traveling back 1000 years ago to discover jewish journey from the first begining of their arrival in Poland till the mordern days. The museum is very modern with well made ilustration that brings you the feeling of beeing there , in those times with the jewish daily life.

Zanimiva predstavitev Varšave, vodič nas je popeljal po prelepem parku, ogledali smo si predel z ambasadami in potem čudovito staro mesto. Vodič je bil zelo simpatičen in veliko svojega znanja nam je posredoval.

A place you really need to go. And you should definitely take two days, not just one.

Excellent experience. Give yourself lots of time. Well worth the money.

Everything was just fine! Thanks a lot for such opportunity.