Jewish Heritage Tours

Jewish Heritage Tours — prior to the creation of the state of Israel, Poland had the largest Jewish community in the world.  The Nazi occupation of the country, and its campaign to annihilate this group resulted in Poland’s Jewish community going from over 3 million to just 3,000.  The Nazis had set up a number of infamous concentration camps (including Auschwitz-Birkenau) that housed not only Polish Jews, but Jews from nearby Germany and elsewhere.   Today Auschwitz is a museum where visitors can learn about what occurred there during its years of operation. Visitors can see displays and exhibits related to daily life in the camp and pay their respects to the many victims who were killed there.

Many American Jews can trace their heritage to Poland — both Holocaust survivors, as well as those who migrated to the U.S. during the early 20th century, when the Jewish community was subject to persecution under Czarist Russian rule in both modern-day Poland, and nearby countries like Ukraine, Belarus and Russia itself).  Nowadays, various travel outfits conduct tours of various Polish sites relevant to the country’s Jewish past — from World War II concentration camps to cities where this community thrived since the MIddle Ages.  Those interested in such tours can go to the following companies:  www.polandjewishheritagetours.com;  www.polishgoldtravel.com;  www.jewishtravel.pl; www.centrumtaubego.org.pl; www.jewish-guide.pl; www.jewishheritagetours.co.uk