A Thousand-Year Home of Polish Jewry, in Warsaw

At a Glance

POLIN — Museum of the History of Polish Jews — stands in Warsaw's Muranów district, on the former Warsaw Ghetto site. The building opened in April 2013; the permanent exhibition in October 2014. It received the European Museum of the Year Award in 2016. The name POLIN is Hebrew for "Poland" and for "rest here."

The Building Like a Parted Sea

Designed by Finland's Lahdelma & Mahlamäki with Warsaw's Kuryłowicz & Associates, the rectangular white-glass volume splits inside into a curving canyon that slices from roof to floor—a visual reference to Moses parting the Red Sea. The adjacent 1948 Ghetto Heroes Monument faces the museum directly.

Highlights

• Eight chronological galleries across 12,800 m², from the 10th century to post-1989.
• The reconstructed painted ceiling of the 17th-century Gwoździec wooden synagogue, recreated by craft teams using period materials over two years—the museum's icon.
• Medieval and early-modern Polish-Jewish towns in interactive models.
• A Holocaust section centred on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1943) that foregrounds everyday life and resistance.
• Post-1945 galleries covering emigration, the 1968 antisemitic campaign, and community rebuilding.

Tips

Fifteen minutes by tram from the Old Town. Around 45 PLN; free on Thursdays. Budget 2–4 hours. Arrive in the morning and take a break at the Warsze restaurant. Pair in the afternoon with the Warsaw Rising Museum for a single-theme day.