Born in September 1921, the remarkable life of Mr. Harris encompassed many of the most significant events of the 20th century. As a young man in Poland, he lost two generations of his family in the Holocaust. Arrested in Russian-occupied eastern Poland and sent to a Siberian Gulag, he and other Polish citizens were subsequently released and conscripted into the Second Polish Army to fight the Nazis. The end of the Second World War found Mr. Harris in a displaced person’s camp outside of Dresden, Germany.

The American camp managers gave the young Mr. Harris a choice – Palestine or America. Alex always said that it was an easy choice and he immigrated to the United States, coming to New York where he founded General Tours in 1947. These were the early days of the Cold War, and Mr. Harris held the firm conviction that travel would build bridges of understanding between his newly adopted homeland and the Continent he’d left behind. With special permission from the Eisenhower Administration, General Tours became the first American company to offer scheduled tours to the Soviet Union.

In the decades since, we have remained true to the vision of our founder. Nearly seven decades later, we continue to offer original journeys that take our guests deeper inside the life and culture of the places we go, enriching their travels with a profound and lasting appreciation and understanding of the world we share.

Alex left us in 2013 at the fine age of 92, but he will always be remembered by his family, friends and colleagues as a brilliant pioneer of the modern American tourism industry.