WORLD WAR II MUSEUM

The world’s largest historical exhibition was opened March 23, 2017 in Gdansk. The construction process started in a different way – first the largest exhibits were placed, later a museum building was raised and adapted to the needs of the exhibition. The structure consists of three symbolic spheres: the past is lowered 15 m below the street level; the present is symbolized by the square around the museum; the tall, leaning tower is the future – still not shaped, uncertain, but with its roots in both history and present.

The famous shots in Sarajevo were fired at the Latin Bridge and resulted in the outbreak of the First World War. Second World War began in Gdansk on September 1, 1939, when SMS Schleswig-Holstein opened fire towards a military transit depot in Westerplatte where Polish troops were deployed. Gdansk is the most suitable place to accommodate such an institution. It was from here that the Second World War disaster originated. The war changed the continent and still throws its shadow over the present.

The museum begins its story from actions that led to the outbreak. The exhibition narration is deprived of emphasizing glorious war campaigns or heroic battles. Instead, the museum focuses on everyday life in the occupied countries, city bombings, fate of war prisoners and sufferings of prisoners in concentration camps, Holocaust, looting, slave work, resistance. The exhibition tells us about the influence of the war on the reality of the postwar, everyday life, justice, expulsions and return from exile, reconstruction and, finally, Europe’s division into two hostile blocks.

The World War II Museum was visited by thousands of Gdansk inhabitants and tourists from around the world. You have to visit the museum too!