Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews

The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews stands in the Muranow district of Warsaw on the ground of the former Warsaw Ghetto, directly facing the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes. It opened partially in 2013 for the 70th anniversary of the uprising and completed its permanent exhibition in 2014; Finnish architect Rainer Mahlamaeki shaped the building around a cleft cut through the lobby, evoking both the parting of the Red Sea and the rupture of the Shoah. The 4,000 square metre permanent display traces a thousand years of Jewish life in Poland from the early Middle Ages through the Renaissance shtetl to the Shoah and postwar reckoning, with the reconstructed painted timber ceiling of the Gwozdziec synagogue as its visual peak. Multiple international awards; allow three to four hours.