Warsaw Attractions

Venue: Old Jewish Ghetto    When: Daily

A trip to Warsaw is not complete without seeing the old Jewish district, turned into a ghetto during the Second World War and the setting of Roman Polanski's triple Oscar-winning film, The Pianist. Located just to the north-west of the city centre, the district can again proudly proclaim its Jewish heritage, with the city's Synagogue, a Jewish Institute and Theatre, as well as the stark memorial to the heroes of the ghetto in a park which will one day become the Museum of the History of Polish Jews.

The Nozyk Synagogue (6 ul Twarda) was at the heart of the wartime ghetto and the only synagogue to survive the war (then only because the Nazis used it as their stables). There are regular services for the 500 or so Jews living in the area, every Friday night and Saturday.

The Jewish Historical Institute (3/5 ul Tlomocka) documents the history of Polish Jews before, during and after the Second World War. Also worth seeing in the area are the last remnants of the 11-mile wall built by Nazis to surround the ghetto. This section of the wall, (62 ul Zlota), is 10ft high and on it there is a map showing the old ghetto.

If your Polish or Yiddish is up to scratch, you may want to see a play at the Jewish National Theatre (12/16 Plac Grzybowski). The theatre's repertoire includes works ranging from Dybuk by Szymon An-ski to Joseph Stein, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick's musical adaptations of Sholom Aleichem's stories, Fiddler on the Roof, as well as new plays and children's stories.

A symbol of the way Poles are finally coming to terms with the events during the Second World War, with a renewed interest in rediscovering Jewish culture and traditions, is the forthcoming Museum of the History of Polish Jews. With fund-raising and official recognition on track, the project will be built on the park where Nathan Rappaport's imposing Memorial of the Heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto has stood since 19 April 1948, on the site of one of the main bunkers of the Jewish Combat Organisation instrumental in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943. It will be the first multimedia museum in Poland, chronicling the visual history of 1000 years of Jewish life and culture.