Jewish History sites Prague vs Krakow

In Prague, I would suggest taking the walking tour given by the Jewish Museum. You go to four synagogues, the cemetary and walk around the neighborhood learning about its history.

In Krakow, I visited most sites on my own.

In general, there is a lot more than just WWII.

In Prague, I would also suggest taking a walking tour with Jason of Living Prague .
tours. While part goes through the Jewish areas, he touches on a lot more.

Just be forewarned......these area get very crowded. I was in Prague three weeks ago and even taking a guided tour from the Jewish museum, you could hardly move inside some of the sites since they were so crowded.

My most memorable experience in Prague was a day spent at Terezin. It's an easy bus ride from Prague. I started at the fortress (the bus continues to the town) where there were individual executions, mostly of political prisoners. Then I walked to the walled town. There is an information center, where I got a very useful map. There are several museums recreating life of the Jewish ghetto (concentration camp from which many, especially children, were sent to the death camps), which was used for propaganda by the Nazis. It's also a functioning city today. Unlike Auschwitz, it was not a death camp and I think it must be a completely different experience (I did not visit Auschwitz).

My visit to Poland was several years ago. I took a couple of "yellow umbrella free tours" in Krakow and in Warsaw. All were very good. In Krakow one was a Jewish tour that ended at the Schindler Factory, what I consider a must-see in Krakow. It is an excellent museum of WWII, and not much emphasis on Jews and nothing to do with Schindler, though there is a side exhibit about him. I believe it was chosen for the museum because of its suitability for the museum. Their Jewish Krakow tour is detailed here.

I strongly recommend Rick Steve's Jewish Quarter Walking Tour in Prague. I went on it as part of my 2022 visit.

In the Prague section of his Eastern Europe guidebook, Rick features some 20 or so sites in the old Jewish Quarter -- ancient synagogues, museums, cemeteries and other sites -- in an easy-to-follow map. Then he gives relatively detailed description of each site, why it's important, timelines and so on. For me, this is one of the most powerful collections of Jewish sights in Europe. The Old New Synagogue -- it's a confusing name -- from the 13th century is the oldest in Central Europe. The serene Old Cemetery is incredibly moving with its limited place and tens of thousands of graves; the tombs are piled atop in each other in many layers. The Spanish Synagogue might be the most beautiful temple on the planet. Rick explains why a synagogue in Prague is named Spanish. The Pinkas Synagogue has a moving memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. When I was there, I bought a book on the Golem, the mythological being from Czech Jewish folklore. I'm glad I read it. (Postscript: Rick probably features the Jewish quarter walk in his slimmer guidebook on just Prague.)

In Krakow, I strongly recommend a visit to Oskar Schindler's factory. If you visit it, you will see his office. Ghetto Heroes Square -- the place that the Nazis used as a staging point before they sent their victims to concentration camps -- is nearby. Kazimierz, the former Jewish neighborhood, is excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed my dinner at a kosher restaurant. The site of the Plaszow Concentration Camp in Krakow can be visited. Suffice it to say, Auschwitz is quite sobering. I have visited it twice and would go back again. You can book a tour at easily identifiable tour companies in central Krakow.

Kraków’s historic Jewish neighborhood , Kazimierz, is still quite rustic and undeveloped compared with Prague’s Josefov neighborhood, where it seems almost every building is now a museum. In Krakow it seems many of the buildings in Kazimierz are still vacant— possibly because of the complexity of establishing ownership title in view of the history here.
Be sure to take an organized tour of Kazimierz so you will know what you are seeing. There are not a lot of signs or markers explaining the history here.
The apartment Oskar Schindler lived in ( one of them) is not far away, at Straszewskiego 7. Right near Wawel Castle—-it’s an inspiring sight. The villa he lived in during the war can be seen near his factory.

Kenko,

This was good information to know and did not come across in the RS book. I will keep that in mind.

The tour that Chani mentions is good, I took it last year and it was very informative, also gave a lot of info on the areas used in Schindlers list film, it visits one synagogue that is now a bookshop. (there are many former synagogues in the city that are now used as museums ,bookshops, restaurants and pubs). The tour finishes at the Jewish Ghetto museum (square of chairs) which is also close to the Eagle Pharmacy and a short walk to Schindler's factory which is an amazing museum to the history of that period. I am back in Krakow in 3 weeks time but concentrating on the Communist history this trip.
In Prague the main Jewish sites are concentrated in one quite small area and you can buy one ticket to visit all the main sites .I am in Prague quite often and the New Jewish cemetery where Franz Kafka is buried is a place i sometimes visit , good bit from the city center but trams and metro stops very close by.
Auschwitz can be very emotionally draining, first time i visited i was quite unsettled for many hours afterwards so be prepared to do little else that day.

For a future trip, consider Budapest where the Jewish culture is rich ans alive and influences much of the culture and life of the city. You just need someone to show and explain.

Here's a WWII site most folks don't know: behind the palace, if you stand at the Brahe & Kepler statue, look across the street at the Hradčanská kasárna; it was the SS HQ.

I like walking the Jewish quarter of Prague. Had one of the best meals ever in a corner bar there back 20 years ago. I've hunted for the place ever since then.

KGC, just wondering if that corner bar was the Kolonial, right opposite the Old cemetery, i use to visit there often but about 5 years ago has been turned into a pizza joint.