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“You can ignore history and just look at Warsaw as a modern city. But if you are curious, then you can find something on every corner.”
These words are from Witold Wrzosinski, director of the Jewish Cemetery on Okopowa Street in the Polish capital, the largest Jewish cemetery in the city.
The Warsaw native, who oversees the 33-hectare (82-acre) last resting place for the city’s Jews, is not wrong. Anyone who visits the Polish capital who does not come away having learned something of its rich and often tragic history must be walking the streets with blinkers on.
Warsaw looks like a chic and modern metropolis. The architecture is appealing, while the underground stations are stylish and sometimes so clean that they almost seem sterile.


There are many parks to retreat from the hustle and bustle of city life, including the centrally located Lazienki Park, which is the city’s largest.
Along the Vistula River, which divides Warsaw’s old town from districts such as Praga – now the centre of the city’s artistic scene – people like to walk the promenade on warm evenings.
The history begins at the Palace of Culture and Science, a monumental building impossible to overlook that was erected at Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s behest in the 1950s. At almost 240 metres (787 feet), it is still one of the tallest buildings in Poland.
Though the building was once seen as a symbol of communist oppression, Warsaw’s residents have now made their peace with the “Stalin syringe” – a reference to the edifice’s sharp-shaped spire. It is now home to museums and cinemas, among other things.
A travel tip: take the lift up the spire for a panoramic view of the city and Vistula River.
The Copernicus Science Centre, named after medieval astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), is also located on the banks of the Vistula. Copernicus, who was born in Poland’s north-central city of Torun, is considered one of the country’s most important scientists.

In the neighbourhood, you will discover the former power station Elektrownia Powisle, a factory building that now houses modern restaurants, cafes and shops.
There is more to Elektrownia Powisle than just industrial history. The plant was a focal point of the Warsaw Uprising of the Polish Home Army against the German occupation in the autumn of 1944, when workers tried to supply the city with energy during the fighting.
The Nazis put down the uprising and then answered it with brutality. On the orders of Nazi SS and Gestapo chief Heinrich Himmler, the occupiers bombarded the entire city centre.
Photographs of this period can now be seen in the Warsaw Uprising Museum and the Polin Museum, the latter of which is devoted to the more than 1,000-year history of Jewish life in Poland. The museum is also dedicated to remembering the Holocaust.


It was between mid-April and mid-May 1943 that what remained of Warsaw’s Jewish population launched an uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto against the Nazis. It was the biggest Jewish act of resistance during the Holocaust, and it also ended in tragedy. Cast-iron plates embedded at 22 points in street surfaces bordering the area mark the external boundaries of the erstwhile ghetto.
To the west of the Vistula, where the historic centre, royal palace and ghetto were located, not one stone was left standing at the end of the war. However, as early as 1945, the people of Warsaw set up an office for the reconstruction of the capital.
They wanted to rebuild everything as faithfully as possible. Warsaw’s Old Town, a Unesco World Heritage site since 1980, is recognised worldwide as the most famous example of a reconstructed city.
The memorial to the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising at the Polin Museum is also of great interest to history-conscious travellers: it was here that on December 7, 1970 that the then West German chancellor Willy Brandt knelt down in a historic gesture of Germany’s expression of remorse for the wartime crimes committed against Poland.

Another of Warsaw’s most important memorials is the Umschlagplatz – “transshipment centre” – near the Warsaw Ghetto. There, the Nazis rounded up and then deported some 250,000 Jews to the Treblinka extermination camp 100km (62 miles) to the northeast.
The Jewish cemetery, which was once part of the Warsaw Ghetto border, was spared from the bombs. And so, with its sometimes monumental burial artefacts, it is a testimony to cemetery director Wrzosinski to how generations of Jews lived in Warsaw.
Today, 60 people are working on the huge cemetery grounds, including 30 archaeologists who are unearthing buried jewellery and porcelain, but also rifles and cartridges from the time of the Jewish resistance.
“We all know how they died,” Wrzosinski said of the country’s Jews. “But let us here show how they lived.”


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What to see in Warsaw to discover its tragic past, from museums to memorials and monuments

The Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw at night. Once seen as a symbol of communist oppression, the “Stalin syringe” is now home to museums and cinemas, among other things. Photo: Shutterstock

People walk along the Vistula River promenade in Warsaw. Photo: Shutterstock

Headstones stand in the Jewish Cemetery on Okopowa Street in Warsaw. Photo: Shutterstock

Part of the Copernicus Science Centre, the Heavens of Copernicus is a state-of-the-art 3D stereo planetarium. Photo: Shutterstock

A view of Swietokrzyska Street after the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. Photo: Roger Viollet via Getty Images

A memorial stands in the Jewish Cemetery on Okopowa Street. Photo: Shutterstock

The memorial to the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising at the Polin Museum. Photo: Shutterstock

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Travel & Leisure

The Polish capital’s rich and often tragic history is seen in places like the Palace of Culture and Science and the Polin Museum


The Polish capital’s rich and often tragic history is seen in places like the Palace of Culture and Science and the Polin Museum.


What to see in Warsaw to discover its tragic past, from museums to memorials and monuments

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}The Polish capital’s rich and often tragic history is seen in places like the Palace of Culture and Science and the Polin Museum

The Polish capital’s rich and often tragic history is seen in places like the Palace of Culture and Science and the Polin Museum