Resisting the Holocaust — Berlin's Hidden Heroes

5.0 (24 reviews) 3 hours Free cancellation

out of 5

24 reviews

5.0

Resisting the Holocaust — Berlin's Hidden Heroes — Photos: the activity supplier, via Viator

Resisting the Holocaust — Berlin's Hidden Heroes, photo 2 — Photos: the activity supplier, via Viator

About this activity

Most people know the broad facts of the Holocaust. What they don't know is what it took to resist it.

This expert-led walking tour explores Berlin's former Jewish quarter, tracing the destruction of a community and the extraordinary individuals who chose to fight back.

From the New Synagogue — saved on the night of Kristallnacht by a police officer who refused his orders — to Otto Weidt's Workshop, where a factory owner protected his blind and deaf Jewish workers from the Gestapo. From the Women's Protest at Rosenstrasse — the only successful mass protest against a Nazi deportation order — to the Trains to Life, Trains to Death memorial at Friedrichstrasse station.

Three hours. Maximum 15 guests. A discussion, not a presentation.

Berlin's only specialist WWII tour company. Expert historian guide.

Featured on National Geographic and the Discovery Channel.

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At a glance

Duration: 3 hours
Confirmation: Instant confirmation
Ticket: Mobile or paper ticket accepted
Group: Up to 15 people
People per booking: 1–15
Audio guide: English
Guide: English
Operated by: On the Front Tours

Ages: Adults (12–95 years)

What is included

Included

Included: Expert Tour Guide
Included: Exclusive Small Group Tour
Included: ‘Then & Now’ photographs & Maps
Included: Accessible Tour

Not included

Not included: Food and drinks
Not included: Hotel pickup and drop-off

Itinerary

Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin - Centrum Judaicum

10 min

Start at the symbolic heart of Berlin's pre-war Jewish community. Learn how this majestic building, nearly destroyed during Kristallnacht, was saved by a local police officer who refused his orders.
Stop 2

10 min

Stolpersteine — Stumbling Stones

Pause at the brass stones embedded in the pavement, each marking the last known address of a Holocaust victim. Over 70,000 across Europe — the largest decentralised memorial in the world.
Stop 3

5 min

Founded in 1779 — Berlin's first free Jewish school. By 1942 it had become a Nazi transit camp. Hear the story of its last headmaster and the fate of those held here before deportation.
Stop 4

15 min

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.
Museum Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt

10 min

tand outside the workshop where Otto Weidt spent years protecting his blind and deaf Jewish workers — falsifying documents, bribing Gestapo officials, and creating hiding places. One of Berlin's most extraordinary stories of individual resistance.
Stop 6

10 min

Stand where German women defied the Nazi regime in 1943 to save their Jewish husbands. For seven days they refused to leave. Their husbands were released. The only successful mass protest against a Nazi deportation order in the history of the Third Reich.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.
Lustgarten

10 min

This cluster of buildings on Museum Island traces the transformation of public space under the Nazi regime — from civic and cultural institutions into instruments of propaganda and state control.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.
Stop 8

10 min

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.
Neue Wache

10 min

Germany's central memorial to the victims of war and tyranny. A single sculpture. An empty room. The silence here is deliberate.
Book Burning Memorial at Bebelplatz

10 min

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".
Trains To Life Trains To Death

10 min

End the tour at Friedrichstrasse station — at the memorial to the Kindertransport children. The same station that sent children to safety sent others to their deaths. This is where the question asked at the start of the tour comes back around. Designed by sculptor Frank Meisle, himself among those rescued by the Kindertransport travelling from here to England in 1939.

Meeting point and pickup

Everyone meets at the meeting point.

Meeting point

Meet your guide in front of the old Post Office building. Look for the guide holding a blue umbrella.

End point

The tour ends at S+U Friedrichstraße, Berlin. This a major train hub with easy easy connection throughout the city. If you need help reaching your next destination please ask your guide.

Using your ticket

MEETING POINT:

We will meet at the Former Imperial Post Office (Oranienburger Str. 36, 10117 Berlin)– holding a BLUE umbrella

WHAT TO BRING:

Comfortable shoes
Water and Snacks
Umbrella or raincoat in unfavourable weather
All the questions you have regarding the Third Reich

Running Late?

Don't panic. Please call or text Matt at +49 (0)152 0468 9477. (Available on WhatsApp)

*Do you want to learn more about World War II? Click the links below or visit us at www.onthefront.com to see all of our tours.

» Hitler’s Berlin - The Rise and Fall (https://bit.ly/3z9BHHT)

» WWII Battlefield Tour - Seelow Heights (https://bit.ly/3PcDTni)

» Berlin Battlefield Tour (https://bit.ly/3aISKXB)

» Holocaust & Nazi Resistance Tour (https://bit.ly/3Pq7FEY)

Cancellation

Free cancellation

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.

If you cancel	You get back
At least one day before	100%
Less than a day before	0%

The operator may cancel if the weather does not allow it; you then get another date or your money back.
The operator may cancel if too few people book; you then get another date or your money back.