Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, in east-central Poland, roughly 160 miles from the Baltic Sea and 190 miles from the Carpathian Mountains. Warsaw is the 9th most populous capital city in the European Union. A unique feature of Warsaw is its number of skyscrapers and high-rise buildings in the city center which form the skyline. Warsaw is one of only a few cities in the European Union that have such a skyline, together with Frankfurt, London, Moscow and Paris.

Between July 22 and September 12, 1942, the German authorities deported or murdered around 300,000 Jews in the Warsaw ghetto. SS and police units deported 265,000 Jews to the Treblinka killing center and 11,580 to forced-labor camps. The Germans and their auxiliaries murdered more than 10,000 Jews in the Warsaw ghetto during the deportation operations. The German authorities granted only 35,000 Jews permission to remain in the ghetto, while more than 20,000 Jews remained in the ghetto in hiding. For the at least 55,000-60,000 Jews remaining in the Warsaw ghetto, deportation seemed inevitable.

The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The Uprising was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces. However, the Soviet advance stopped short, enabling the Germans to regroup and demolish the city while defeating the Polish resistance, which fought for 63 days with little outside support.

Images of Poland by rail from Warsaw to Krakow.

Krakow, also known as Kraków, Cracow, is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life and is one of Poland's most important economic hubs.

Images of Poland by rail from Krakow to Prague, Czech Republic.