Museum of the Second World War

The Museum of the Second World War stands at plac Władysława Bartoszewskiego 1 in Gdańsk, in the Pomeranian Voivodeship of Poland, a few minutes' walk from the Old Town and the Motława River. Gdańsk was chosen because the war began in the city region on 1 September 1939, with the shelling of Westerplatte. The museum opened in March 2017 and presents the war as a global experience, rather than only a Polish or European one, emphasising the lives of civilians as well as soldiers.

The building is a modern structure by the Kwadrat architectural studio, with a tilted tower rising above a largely underground exhibition hall. The permanent core exhibition covers roughly 5,000 square metres and contains thousands of objects, including uniforms, weapons, vehicles, letters, posters, photographs and everyday items from the period. The display is organised chronologically and in three main parts: the road to war, covering the 1930s and the rise of totalitarian regimes; the horror of war, covering the conflict itself, the occupation of Europe and the Holocaust; and the long shadow of war, covering the years after 1945 and the postwar order. Immersive reconstructions, such as a street of a prewar European town, a bombed apartment and a cattle wagon, are used alongside film and audio testimony to give a sense of the period.

The museum has been a subject of public debate in Poland, particularly over its institutional status and the presentation of the story, but the exhibition remains one of the most visited museums in the country. The route is long and dense, and visitors typically need several hours. The building is relatively new, so the fabric is in excellent condition, and the museum provides audio guides and printed information in several languages including English.