Berlin Trip Overview
Join the resistance!
The tour begins in the Jewish district following in the footsteps of the brave men and women who refused to submit to the Nazi’s social philosophies and risked their lives to fight back and save others from persecution.
Our journey highlights key historical events about Jewish migration to Berlin, the rise of anti-Semitism in 1930’s Germany and visits Berlin’s oldest Jewish cemetery and the site of a deportation centre.
Discover the stories of Otto Weidt’s sanctuary for blind and deaf Jews, the brave women who protested in the streets of Berlin to have their Jewish husbands released from concentration camps and how the German Army attempted on five occasions to assassinate Hitler.
Additional Info
Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes
Starts: Berlin, Germany
Trip Category: Cultural & Theme Tours >> Cultural Tours
Explore Berlin Promoted Experiences
What to Expect When Visiting Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Join the resistance!
The tour begins in the Jewish district following in the footsteps of the brave men and women who refused to submit to the Nazi’s social philosophies and risked their lives to fight back and save others from persecution.
Our journey highlights key historical events about Jewish migration to Berlin, the rise of anti-Semitism in 1930’s Germany and visits Berlin’s oldest Jewish cemetery and the site of a deportation centre.
Discover the stories of Otto Weidt’s sanctuary for blind and deaf Jews, the brave women who protested in the streets of Berlin to have their Jewish husbands released from concentration camps and how the German Army attempted on five occasions to assassinate Hitler.
Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product
Stop At: Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin – Centrum Judaicum, Oranienburger Str. 28 – 30, 10117 Berlin Germany
The starting point for this tour is the Neue Synagogue, New Synagogue. Constructed in 1866, the Synagogue was the largest and most magnificent in Berlin, a literal representation of the thriving 160,000 Berlin Jewish community members.
Saved from vandals during the infamous Kristallnacht pogrom.
The Synagogue remained in use until 1940 until being confiscated by the Army and used to store military uniforms. In November 1943, the Synagogue was severely damaged in an allied bombing raid. The main hall was torn down in 1958, partly rebuilt in 1988 and officially reopened in 1995. Today the Synagogue houses the Centrum Judaicum foundation, an institution for preserving Jewish memory and tradition.
Duration: 10 minutes
Stop At: Jüdisches Gymnasium Moses Mendelssohn, Große Hamburger Str. 27, 10115 Berlin, Germany
Founded in 1779, the Jewish boy’s school was the first Jewish school in Germany without fees. Although a Jewish institution the school was open to all faiths and promoted liberal Jewishness and accepted female students in 1931.
In the Fall of 1941, the deportation of Jews to the newly conquered territories to the East resulted in banning all Jewish schools. In 1942, the Reich Main Security office under the SS turned the building into a transit camp. The windows were barred, and Jews were crammed inside to await deportation.
Duration: 5 minutes
Stop At: Jewish Cemetery and Holocaust Memorial, Zelik 1, Mostar Bosnia and Herzegovina
Between 1672 and 1827, some 12,000 Jewish community members were buried here.
On the orders of the Gestapo, the SS destroyed the cemetery in 1943, smashing thousands of gravestones, throwing away remains and playing football with skulls.
In April 1945 burials once again took place. Almost 2500 German soldiers and Berlin civilians killed during the fighting or shot by the SS for hanging white flags from their windows are buried in mass graves.
Duration: 15 minutes
Stop At: Museum Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt, Rosenthaler Str. 39, 10178 Berlin Germany
Located in a hidden courtyard is Otto Weidt’d Workshop for the Blind. Weidt supported by his wife Else employed more than 30 blind and deaf Jewish workers between 1940 to 1945.
As tensions grew, Weidt endeavoured to protect his mostly blind and deaf employees from persecution and deportation, regularly bribing Gestapo officers and falsifying documents. Even going as far as to travel to Auschwitz concentration camp to break one of his employees out.
Duration: 10 minutes
Stop At: Denkmal Rosenstraße, Rosenstraße 2, 10178 Berlin, Germany
A remarkable story, on the 27th of February 1943, the Gestapo, Waffen-SS and Berlin Police arrested , two-thousand Jewish men, married to non-Jewish German women.
Outraged, the wives of those detained numbering in the hundreds gathered to protest. Despite periodic threats of being shot if the women did not disperse the women would scatter briefly, only to return in larger numbers to continue protesting.
As pressure mounted Goebbels authorized the prisoner’s release.
Duration: 10 minutes
Stop At: Am Lustgarten 1 Museum Island, 10178 Berlin Germany
The Lustgarten is framed on three sides by the Berlin Cathedral, the Altes Museum and the Zeughaus. Before the Nazi’s, the Lustgarten was a favourite location for protests and speeches.
One week after Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor 200,000 Berliner’s protested the new Government.
Strict regulations imposed by the Nazi’s over the coming month’s restricted Germans’ right to protest, hefty fines and arrests made protesting the Nazi regime very dangerous.
In 1934, the Lustgarten was paved over to make way for Nazi propaganda rallies, swearing-in ceremonies and military parades.
Duration: 10 minutes
Stop At: Zeughaus, Unter den Linden 2, 10117 Berlin, Germany
The magnificent Zeughaus is the oldest building along Unter den Linden constructed in 1730 as an artillery arsenal.
On March 21, 1943, the Zeughaus was chosen to exhibit captured Soviet weapons. Major General Rudolf Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff, a member of the Wehrmacht resistance, was chosen to lead the exhibit. Despite 27 failed assassination attempts to kill Adolf Hitler. Gersdorff was resolute to succeed and agreed to blow himself up with the Führer. With two concealed Bristish clam mines, he planned to throw himself around Hitler in a death embrace that would blow them both up.
A detailed coup d’état was in place and ready to go, learn what happens next on this tour.
Duration: 10 minutes
Stop At: Neue Wache, Unter den Linden 4, 10117 Berlin Germany
The monument is a moving site in the middle of this busy city and stands as Germany’s central memorial for the victims of war and tyranny.
Duration: 10 minutes
Stop At: Book Burning Memorial at Bebelplatz, Bebelplatz 1, 10117 Berlin Germany
On 10 May 1933, members of the Nazi German Student Union and their professors gathered here in Bebel Platz adjacent the historical and prestigious Humboldt University. In a nationwide action “against the un-German spirit”. Students burned upwards of 25,000 volumes of books that were deemed “un-German”.
Duration: 10 minutes
Stop At: Trains To Life Trains To Death, Georgenstrasse 14 Berlin Friedrichstrasse station, 10117 Berlin Germany
The almost life-size sculpture, Trains to Life – Trains to Death. The monument depicts two groups of Jewish children’s contrasting fates during the Nazi era. The groups gaze in opposing directions representing the Jewish children whose lives were saved by the Kindertransport to England and the suffering of those deported to concentration camps.
Designed by sculpture Frank Meisle, himself among those rescued by the Kindertransporte travelling from here to England in 1939.
Duration: 10 minutes
