Museum of the Second World War (Gdańsk)

Museum of the Second World War (Gdańsk)
Name	Museum of the Second World War (Gdańsk)
Established	2017
Location	Gdańsk, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland
Type	History museum

Contents

Museum of the Second World War (Gdańsk) is a national institution dedicated to documenting the global impact of World War II with emphasis on Polish and European experiences in the Invasion of Poland (1939), Siege of Leningrad, Battle of Britain, and Battle of Stalingrad. The museum presents material and immaterial heritage related to figures such as Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Franklin D. Roosevelt while connecting collections to events like the Holocaust, Nanking Massacre, Operation Barbarossa, and the D-Day landings. It situates local history of Gdańsk and the Free City of Danzig within transnational narratives involving institutions such as the United Nations and outcomes including the Yalta Conference and Potsdam Conference.

History and founding

The museum was conceived amid debates involving the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Museum of Polish History, and civic groups in Gdańsk after proposals tied to commemorations of the 70th anniversary of World War II and the Solidarity legacy. Founding figures and advisors referenced scholarship from Norman Davies, Timothy Snyder, Richard J. Evans, and archives such as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Yad Vashem, and the Imperial War Museums. Legislative and administrative processes linked the museum to disputes involving the Law and Justice government, the Civic Platform opposition, and municipal authorities of Pomeranian Voivodeship, while curatorial teams consulted collections from the Bundesarchiv, Russian State Archive, and Polish Institute of National Remembrance. The official opening in 2017 followed international exhibitions, donor contributions, and curatorial work referencing artifacts from Westerplatte, Auschwitz, Stutthof, and military collections from the Polish Army Museum.

The building, designed by architects influenced by contemporary projects like the Jewish Museum Berlin and the National WWII Museum (New Orleans), occupies a prominent site near Motława River and the historic Gdańsk Shipyard. Architectural discourse compared its massing and materials to designs by Daniel Libeskind, Zaha Hadid, and Herzog & de Meuron, while engineers referenced conservation practice seen at the Tower of London and St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk. The underground exhibition spaces and above-ground volumes required coordination with the Conservation Office of Poland, local authorities of Gdańsk, and heritage bodies including Europa Nostra; structural solutions were informed by techniques used at the Museum of the Second World War (Gdańsk)'s contemporaries and by examples from the Völklingen Ironworks and Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. Landscaping aligned with memorials such as the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes and the Warsaw Uprising Monument to create sightlines toward the Old Town, Gdańsk and the European Solidarity Centre.

Permanent and temporary displays juxtapose artifacts, documents, oral histories, and multimedia drawn from repositories like the National Archives (Poland), British National Archives, Bundesarchiv, Museo del Prado, and private collections related to personalities including Władysław Sikorski, Lech Wałęsa, Heinrich Himmler, and Anne Frank. Exhibition themes span military campaigns such as the Battle of Kursk, North African Campaign, and Pacific War; geopolitical processes including the Munich Agreement and the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact; and crimes against humanity exemplified by the Final Solution and the Bataan Death March. Curatorial practices incorporated items associated with Waffen-SS, Polish Underground State, Czechoslovak Legion, Royal Air Force, and Red Army operations, with audiovisual testimonies from survivors of Treblinka and witnesses to the Katyn massacre. Interactive installations referenced archival holdings from the BBC, the Library of Congress, the German Historical Museum, and the Centre Pompidou, while loans from the Museum of the Second World War (Gdańsk)'s international partners augmented comparative displays.

The museum developed education programs for audiences tied to institutions like the University of Gdańsk, the Copernicus Science Centre, Polish Academy of Sciences, and international partners including Yad Vashem and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Curricula addressed primary sources from the Wojskowe Biuro Historyczne, archival collections at the Jagiellonian University, and oral history projects coordinated with the Shoah Foundation, Imperial War Museums, and the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure. Research fellowships attracted scholars working on topics such as comparative genocide studies, memory politics, and material culture connected to the Nuremberg Trials, the Geneva Conventions, and postwar tribunals; publications and conferences engaged historians like Omer Bartov, Ian Kershaw, Rita Hayworth (note: as cultural figure), and legal scholars analyzing precedents set at the International Military Tribunal.

Since inception the museum was at the center of contested debates involving the Polish Museum of the Second World War project, administrative interventions by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and criticism from scholars associated with the Institute of National Remembrance and opposition politicians from Civic Platform and Nowoczesna. Disputes concerned curatorial statements about responsibility and victimhood involving actors such as Nazi Germany, Soviet Union, Ukrainian Insurgent Army, and collaborators in occupied territories, and touched on international diplomatic reactions from Germany–Poland relations, Russia–Poland relations, and institutions like the European Commission. Legal challenges referenced precedents from cultural policy debates seen in cases involving the Museum of the History of Polish Jews and public controversies over monuments to figures like Józef Piłsudski and Roman Dmowski, producing public demonstrations in Gdańsk and parliamentary debate in the Sejm of the Republic of Poland.

The museum operates with services comparable to major European institutions such as the Louvre, Tate Modern, Museo Nacional del Prado, and the National WWII Museum (New Orleans), offering guided tours, temporary exhibition halls, a research library, and archival reading rooms coordinated with the National Library of Poland and local cultural centers including the European Solidarity Centre. Practical visitor information addresses access via Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport, regional rail links to Gdynia and Sopot, tram and bus connections, ticketing policies, and accessibility measures informed by standards used at the British Museum and Smithsonian Institution. Operational partnerships include loans and exchanges with the Imperial War Museums, Bundeswehr Museum of Military History, and academic collaborations with the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań.