For someone touring modern Warsaw it is almost possible to forget the horrors the Jews suffered in this city. A tour of the Jewish ghetto and the “Route of the Brave” brings you back to your senses.

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Very little authenticity is left of the Jewish ghetto. You need to apply your imagination to try to reconstruct the cruel experiences the Jews suffered. They were packed into residential building, several families in each apartment, 1,000 people in a building. Courtyards were used for kindergartens, communal kitchens, celebrations and as a death trap when Jews were required to immediately evacuate their homes to the sound of a German whistle.

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From there they were taken through the only entrance to the main street and marched away, together with residents of other buildings, to be ‘resettled’.

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Jews were marched to the Umschlagplatz, transshipment square, adjacent to the ghetto. The building of the Treblinka death camp ended July 21st, 1942. The first transport took place immediately the following day. The monument at the Umschlagplatz, in memory of 300,000 Jews transferred through it on their way to their death, was designed with a black stripe across, signifying the ‘Talit’, a traditional Jewish prayer shawl. A wide crack in the center symbolizes the fracture suffered by the Jewish nation in the Holocaust, and behind it a tree symbolizes revival.

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The Janosh Korzak Orphanage still serves as a hostel for children with problems today. Korzak believed the key to improving the world was education. In his orphanage he raised 200 children, isolated from the horrors of the ghetto. Janosh Korzak prepared ‘his children’ for the Day of Judgment at Treblinka. When the time came he refused to part from his children, although the Germans allowed him to save himself, and together they bravely marched to their deaths.

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The Nozyk Synagogue was built in 1902 by Zalman Nozyk, a wealthy Jewish merchant. The synagogue was well known all over Europe for its religious songs and psalms. This is the only synagogue that survived Nazi destruction in Warsaw. Prayer was allowed until autumn 1941 after which the synagogue was converted into a stable. Parts of the Nozyk Synagogue were rebuilt between 1977-1983 and today it hosts regular daily prayers and services.

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The Jewish Research Foundation Building reflects in a glass tower built on the location of Warsaw's largest synagogue that was destroyed in the war.

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A prewar school housed the Pawiak Jail during the war. The jail was setup for political prisoners and served as a German tool for breaking the spirit of the Polish people. Its first victims were intellectuals from the humanitarian arts, education, bankers and politicians.

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The jail was named from the word pawiak, which means peacock, because of the prisoners’ screams during interrogation.

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