About this experience
The history of Berlin's Jews is as old as the city itself. In the book 'Jewish Places in Berlin', researchers have identified over eight hundred such places. I will guide you through the most interesting ones, while telling you about their lives, how they were treated, how their fate dramatically changed in the fateful 1930s, and where they are settled now.
What to Expect
Background: Saraevo District
First, you will try to imagine the neighborhood as it was before - kosher meat shops, book ruins, and prayer houses. It was here, in a once very poor district, that Jews were allowed to settle. Now it is a beautiful center with restaurants and trendy shops. I will share stories from the community's life before the start of the dark history and guide you to the places that still serve Jews today: the old cemetery, an active school, and the fairy-tale building of the New Synagogue, built in Moorish style and resembling the Alhambra palace with a golden dome sparkling in the Berlin sunlight.
Point of No Return: What Remains After
In 1933, the mass extermination of Jews began, and the city holds many testimonies of that tragic time. We will reach the cemetery where a monument 'Missing House' was erected on the site of a bombed house with the names of the deceased residents. Not far from the New Synagogue is Rosenstrasse, famous for the feat of hundreds of women who stood up for their arrested husbands - we will walk along it, and I will tell you more about this story. Moving further along Unter den Linden street, in the middle of Bebelplatz, right in the cobblestones, you will see a window into a room with empty bookshelves. Here, on Goebbels' orders, 20,000 books written by Jews were burned. And finally, we will visit the Memorial to the Victims of the Holocaust. This amazing space, occupying the territory of a small residential area, is filled with gray slabs, among which it is easy to get lost.
Organizational Details
- All excursions are individual - depending on your preferences, we can adjust the route.
- No additional expenses are expected.
