Walking Tour of the ‘Large’ Ghetto and the Excavation Site at 18 Miła St.

Before World War II, Warsaw was home to the largest and most diverse Jewish community in Europe. As a result of Nazi decisions, this community perished, ad so did any traces of its presence in the city.

The ghetto set up by the Nazis in Warsaw was the largest ghetto in occupied Europe. Over 460,000 Jews were locked up there in horrible conditions, condemned to death of exhaustion, hunger and diseases.  After deporting 300,000 Jews to the killing centre in Treblinka in 1942 and putting down the uprising that broke out in the ghetto in 1943, the Nazis razed the area to the ground. Nothing was left of the ghetto and its inhabitants.

Today, it is only monuments and memorial plaques that safeguard the memory of what happened here. However, under the streets, sidewalks and lawns, old cellars and corridors still exist, filled with rubble and earth but also artifacts: religious cult objects and everyday items among them.

During the tour, you will have a chance to follow in the footsteps of Warsaw Jews during the most tragic period in their history, learn about their life before the war and visit the excavation site near the Anielewicz Mound at 18 Miła St. The cellars that have been uncovered by archeologists during excavation works carried out by the Warsaw Ghetto Museum are part of the bunker in which commanders of the Jewish Fighting Organisation committed mass suicide when their hiding place was found out by the Nazis.

The tour will be guided by Katarzyna Jankowiak, an educator in the Warsaw Ghetto Museum.