This tour is also available as
a Private Tour.
Without Kazimierz, the Jewish world would be as empty as a body without a soul. In a different time, in a different Kazimierz, Moses Isserles (the Remuh), one of the greatest Jewish scholars to ever live, said: “The aim of man is to search for the cause and the meaning of things”. Let’s follow his advice and go deeper into the history of the Jewish presence in Kraków.
Jews have lived in Poland for nearly a millennium. In the Middle Ages, the country became known for its religious tolerance and gave Jews an unprecedented degree of social autonomy. Expelled and suffering persecutions in many other European countries, Jews flocked to Poland and the population grew rapidly. Jewish culture and learning flourished in Kazimierz. By the mid-16th century, it was the most significant center of Jewish life in the world. Even today, Jews from all over the world travel to Kazimierz and Poland to find their family, cultural and spiritual roots. By the end of the 1930s, the Jewish community of Kraków constituted about 25% of the city’s population. Just like everyone else, Jewish Cracovians had their hopes, dreams, ideas and plans for the future. All of them were crushed by the war and the occupation. The streets of the former Kraków ghetto bear witness to the desperate struggle to survive, and the destruction of Kraków’s Jewish community.
Today’s Kazimierz is a very peculiar place. During the tour, you can experience many contradictory emotions all at once: joy at discovering the rich history, culture and traditions of Polish Jewry; sadness and nostalgia for the lost, pre-war world; excitement at witnessing the rebirth of Jewish life here. The uniqueness of Kazimierz can be measured by one more thing: its amazing transition from the worst slum in Kraków to the most vibrant and hip district of the city where the lights never go out.
On this 2 hours’ 30 minutes FREE Walkative! TOUR you will see and discover:
Final point: Plac Bohaterów Getta (Ghetto Heroes Square)
After walking around Jewish district and the former ghetto we recommend taking Schindler’s Factory and Communist Kraków – Nowa Huta tours to understand history of Kraków better!
This tour describes the crimes of the Nazi Germans during the war and the terrible fate of Kraków Jews. In order to get to know this grim chapter of history better it is necessary to visit the former Nazi camp Auschwitz-Birkenau.
7 and 8 December tours in 🇬🇧: 10:30, 12:30, 14:30
7 and 8 December Tour auf Deutsch 🇩🇪: 14:30
7 December Tour en Español 🇪🇸: 10:30
8 December Tour en Español 🇪🇸: 10:30, 15:45
We have recently returned from a short visit to Krakow. Having been badly let down by another tour company we went online and luckily discovered Walkalive. We booked the Jewish Krakow tour where we were introduced to our guide Tomas, (Big Tom). His passion and knowledge for the subject was outstanding. We enjoyed it so much we booked the afternoon tour Old Town Krakow and were fortunate to have Tomaz as our guide again. again his knowledge and storytelling made for a very entertaining experience. Our third tour was the evening Macabre Krakow, not initially with with Tomaz but due to numbers he again turned out to be our guide,( he must have thought we were stalking him at this point). Again a very interesting and informative tour with a very unexpected ending kept us enthralled for the whole evening. Highly recommend these tours ( especially with “Big Tom”.
We booked our Tour an hour before it started and everything worked perfectly.
The tour was very interesting thanks to our great Guide Maciek. He told us about so many diffrent aspekts of jewish life and history in Krakow and in general. The three hours went by so quickly and we learned a lot.
Thanks Weronika for sharing 2,5 hours of interesting moment of history
We were lucky to discover Walkative online. Booked this tour about an hour beforehand! Amazing. Tomasz was Knowledgeable and passionate about his city. So much information and a great delivery too. Check it out! Thank you!
We had Damien as our guide last night on our tour of the Jewish District in Krakow. It was very interesting and informative. I highly recommend
This tour is also available as
a Private Tour.
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