Museum of the History of Polish Jews

Museum Polin
(Museum of the History of Polish Jews)

• Mordechaja Anielewicza 6, 00-157 Warszawa (Śródmieście, Muranów)
• Opened: October 28, 2014

The facility’s proper name is Museum Polin, referring to a legend about the arrival of the first Jewish settlers in the 13th century fleeing persecutions in western Europe. The fugitives supposedly heard a voice in the wilderness calling “Po-lin,” which in Hebrew means “you should rest here.”

The award-winning building, designed by the Lahdelma & Mahlamaki Oy architectural studio in Helsinki, Finland, stands on the site of Warsaw’s World War II-era Jewish ghetto. It was first opened to the public on April 19, 2013 to mark the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

Museum of the History of Polish Jews - Hebrew and Latin letters of the word "Polin" (Hebrew for "Poland" or "you will rest here") on the façade

Main hall

Poland’s Jewish population grew to 3.3 million on the eve of World War II, of whom about 90 percent perished in the Holocaust. Many of the survivors emigrated after the war, in part to escape communist-era persecution.

A replica of the ceiling of Gwozdziec’s 18th-century synagogue, a key exhibit in Warsaw’s new museum of Jewish history (now Ukraine)

An external view of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews