Meet your guide at your central Berlin hotel and set off on foot to begin your private walking tour. As a curtain raiser, get a fascinating introduction to Berlin's Jewish heritage and culture from your guide, starting from when Jewish immigrants arrived in the city in the 17th century through the horrors of World War II to current times.
As you stroll, ask your private guide any questions you may have, and learn about Berlin Jews such as Albert Einstein and philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. Hear about the rise of devastating anti-Semitism in the early 20th century, the fates of Berlin's Jews during WWII, and how the city is now home to one of the world’s fastest-growing Jewish communities.
See the site of the Old Synagogue and the Rosenstrasse Memorial or ‘Block of Women’ sculpture that honors the 1943 women’s protests that took place here. View the former Jewish boys’ school and the cemetery, where Mendelssohn is buried, and see the memorial to the November 1938 pogroms against the city's Jews.
Stop at the Missing House, where a house inhabited by Jews used to stand, and explore the Hackesche Höfe, home to many working class Jewish immigrants before the war.
Visit the Otto Weidt Museum, a workshop whose owner Weidt protected blind and deaf Jewish workers during the Third Reich, and head to Berlin-Grunewald Station to see the Platform 17 (Gleis 17) memorial that marks a key deportation site of Jews between 1941 and 1942. Stop, too, at the 19th-century New Synagogue to view its magnificent exterior.
Your tour concludes here, leaving you free to go inside the synagogue independently (own expense). Alternatively, ask your guide to escort you back to your hotel.
