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Free booking and cancellationFree payment tour, no set price, booking and cancellation are free
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Walkative was established in 2007 by a group of young enthusiasts who also happened to be licensed tour guides. Today, we operate in 20 cities in countries across all of Europe and beyond, including France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Ukraine and Israel. We have already guided more than 3 million tourists, with more than 350 000 in 2023 only! Despite this growth, we stay true to our values: be local and present the history of our cities in a professional, yet entertaining way, accessible for everybody, regardless their budget. We provide service not only in big, well established places like Berlin, Paris or Krakow, but also smaller, less known, yet no less fascinating locations, like Nice, Toruń or Lublin. We cooperate with highly trained, professional guides providing both engaging tip-based and regular fixed-price tours. And most importantly - we know our cities by heart! Join us and stay Walkative!
Before the Second World War, Warsaw was a city with the biggest Jewish community in Europe. The only other city with a Jewish community of similar size was… New York! The story of Jewish Warsaw is a story of stubborn returns. For many years, even centuries, Jews were banned from the city. However, that did not stop them from participating in city life – during good times and bad. Jews joined Varsovians in their struggles against occupying powers, and they played an active part in the Polish uprisings. The city experienced a major influx of Jews in the 19th and 20th centuries. During the Interwar Period, Jewish Warsaw flourished. Hundreds of artists, actors, writers, and journalists called the city home. Its cultural life was incomparable to any other time and place in history. Realizing what Warsaw was helps us understand the tremendous loss.
The Second World War and Holocaust left the city changed forever. The wounds and scars will never heal. But, alongside stories of destruction, there are stories of the unimaginable bravery of those who fought without hope. There are also stories of the present; stories of rebirth… Let’s get back first to the past. This city was once famous for its Jewish culture. There are many people whose names history will never forget and Varsovians will always be proud of: Ludwig Zamenhoff, the inventor of Esperanto; Isaac Bashevis Singer (born Icchok Baszewis Singer), who won the Nobel Prize for literature are just two examples.
The stories of the Warsaw Ghetto and the Uprising there, and of people like Janusz Korczak and Mordechai Anielewicz will leave you trembling. While the story of Oskar Schindler’s rescue of over a thousand Kraków Jews has become internationally famous with the release of the film Schindler’s List, a much less well-known story is that of Warsaw resident Irena Sendler, who actually saved more Jews than Schindler did. Her story is depicted in The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler. Last, but not least, it is worth mentioning one more person made famous by a Hollywood film: Władysław Szpilman, better known as The Pianist from Roman Polański’s film. But there is more to Jewish Warsaw than the past. There is also the here and now – the living Jewish community with a synagogue, kindergarten, school, and the only regularly functioning Yiddish theatre in the world: the Ester Rachela Kamińska Jewish Theatre.
To discover all of this, just come and join us at the meeting point and be ready for journey through times and emotions!
ℹ️ ⚠️ ATTENTION - booking rules
Please note that our free tours are designed for individual travelers and small private groups only. Hence, we do not accept parties of 8 or more people on regular free tours and guides have the right to deny participation to such groups. If you travel in a party of 8 or more please book a private tour in advance.
If you show up at the meeting point with the bigger group our guide will ask you for the payment (10 eur/person) before the tour or cancel your reservation on the spot. To confirm your reservation please arrive 10 minutes before starting. We can not guarantee participation when you will be late.
Please note that multiply bookings (under different names) for 7 people who belong to one group will still be treated as one organized group and the guide has the right to deny participation to such parties.
This policy is implied in the best interest of our individual visitors.
Please respect our rules.
All Saints Church in Plac Grzybowski 3/5 - look for the yellow umbrella!
Plac Grzybowski and Próżna street - one of very few areas in Warsaw that survived the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto.
The only surviving pre-war Warsaw synagogue.
Waliców Street: once the ghetto border.
Monument commemorating the footbridge once connecting parts of the Warsaw ghetto.
Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews and the 1948 Monument to the Ghetto Heroes.
Free tours do not have a set price, instead, each person gives the guru at the end of the tour the amount that he or she considers appropriate (these usually range from €10 to $50 depending on satisfaction with the tour).
