The Holocaust
Poland and the death camps
Some six million Poles died during the Second World War, half of whom were Jews murdered in the 'efficient' Concentration Camps run by the Nazis during the three-year German occupation of their country. In this, an eight-day death camp tour to Poland, we visit four of the Death Camps or Concentration Camps that played a significant role in the Holocaust genocide – a concentration camp tour of Treblinka, Majdanek, Auschwitz and Birkenau. Our concentration camp tour and Auschwitz tour looks at the struggle of both the Jews and the Poles against their evil oppressors, also visiting the Holocaust scenes of the Ghetto Uprising in 1943 and the Warsaw Uprising in 1944.
However the concentration camp tour is not limited to the serious and emotive nature of the Holocaust. We also enjoy expert guided tours of Warsaw and Krakow, sample much of the local culture and visit the world famous salt mine at Wieliczka.
"When I came to power, I did not want the concentration camps to become old age pensioners homes, but instruments of terror".
Adolf Hitler
Day 1.
Fly London to Warsaw. Check into our hotel before a guided visit of Warsaw's Old Town. Return to our hotel for dinner.
Day 2.
Today we start our holocaust tour with a guided tour around Warsaw including the Warsaw Rising monument, '44 Rising Museum, Nozyk Synagogue, and the Jewish Cemetery. We walk the Holocaust 'memorial route to the struggle & martyrdom of the Jews'. This evening we visit a traditional Polish restaurant.
Day 3.
This morning we start our concentration camp tour and drive to the Death Camps of Treblinka, where up to 17,000 victims were murdered daily. Our concentration camp tour continues to the city of Lublin, with its imposing castle/ prison which served as a Nazi processing centre through which 100,000 of the city's Jewish population passed. Check in to our hotel for one night.
Day 4.
Check out of our hotel and drive to Krakow via the Death Camp of Majdanek, where the concentration camp barracks, guard towers and long lines of (formerly) electrified double barbed wire remain just as they were over fifty years ago. Here you will find the only remaining concentration camp gas chamber that is completely intact.
Day 5.
Today take a day off from our Holocaust tour and explore some of Poland's culture with a guided tour of the architectural wealth of Krakow's Old Town with its busy street life. In the afternoon we will visit the Wawel, the very symbol of Poland. Its cathedral has seen the coronation and funeral of nearly all of Poland's monarchs and is the last resting place of many of them. We will explore the castle and go in search of the legendary Wawel Dragon.
Day 6.
We travel out to the Death Camp Auschwitz Tour and Birkenau Concentration Camp. Our Auschwitz tour enters the camp of Auschwitz, one passes under the infamous inscription 'Arbeit Macht Frei' mounted upon Auschwitz's main gate, before we visit the Auschwitz tour exhibitions in the surviving prison blocks. After lunch our concentration camp tour visits Birkenau, also known as Auschwitz II, the purpose built concentration camp that had over 300 prison blocks and 4 massive gas chambers.
Day 7.
Before WW2 and the Holocaust, some 70,000 Jews lived in Krakow, mostly in the suburb of Kazimierz. Today the Jewish Quarter is slowly transforming itself from its sorry dilapidated post war state thanks to the profile that Krakow received after the success of the Holocaust film, 'Schindler's List'. We explore this tiny area visiting the Old Synagogue Museum and the recently opened Holocaust museum in "Schindler's" Factory. This afternoon we visit the Salt Mine at Wieliczka that has been operating for some 700 years. Within the Salt Mine's labyrinth of 300km of tunnels we will discover its chapels, underground lakes and museum. Returning to our hotel, we spend the evening enjoying some lively local entertainment during our farewell dinner.
Day 8.
Check out of our hotel and catch the express train to Warsaw where we transfer to the airport for our return flight to London.
