Galicia Jewish Museum
Galicia Jewish Museum
4.5
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Monday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Tuesday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Wednesday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Thursday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Friday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Saturday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Sunday
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM
About
The Galicia Jewish Museum exists to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust and to celebrate the Jewish culture of Polish Galicia, presenting Jewish history from a new perspective.
Duration: 2-3 hours
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Neighborhood: Kazimierz
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
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4.5
617 reviews
Excellent
357
Very good
175
Average
58
Poor
20
Terrible
7
Warren K
Hayfield, UK27 contributions
Nov 2023 • Couples
Not a museum, most definitely an art gallery, this turned out to be my favourite place in Krakow.
Built around a permanent exhibition of modern day documentary photography concerning the occupation, exile, extermination and lives of Jews in and around the area, nothing speaks to me more than quality images on a theme, and it turned out that these did so to possible an even greater extent than any of the other museums or memorials liberally scattered around the city.
Outside of the permanent exhibition, the intimate and tender documentary work of Agnieszka Traczewska in her exhibition “Kroke. Orthodox Jews in Kraków” was worth the price of entry, and the cartoon skateboard paintings on the other side were welcome relief from what could have been overwhelmingly depressive.
On top of that, the in-house coffee shop served the best espresso, and the bookshop was vast.
Spend a couple of hours if you have them.
Built around a permanent exhibition of modern day documentary photography concerning the occupation, exile, extermination and lives of Jews in and around the area, nothing speaks to me more than quality images on a theme, and it turned out that these did so to possible an even greater extent than any of the other museums or memorials liberally scattered around the city.
Outside of the permanent exhibition, the intimate and tender documentary work of Agnieszka Traczewska in her exhibition “Kroke. Orthodox Jews in Kraków” was worth the price of entry, and the cartoon skateboard paintings on the other side were welcome relief from what could have been overwhelmingly depressive.
On top of that, the in-house coffee shop served the best espresso, and the bookshop was vast.
Spend a couple of hours if you have them.
Written December 13, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
JL
6 contributions
Sep 2022
Great museum. I visited in September 2022, when they had a photo exhibit called "Rediscovering Traces of Memory." It's a great history of Polish Jewry prior to the Holocaust. They also have a very nice gift shop.
Written September 10, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Lee Smith
London, UK23 contributions
Jan 2023 • Couples
My partner and I were in the Jewish quarter of Krakow & found this museum. We looked at the trip advisor reviews. There were a few negative reviews, which thankfully we ignored.
As you move around the museum & into the details about the holocaust, it becomes very emotional. Each photo has a description of what it is & the story behind the photo. I'm not someone who gets emotional easily, but the one photo I've uploaded with this review made me as a father well up. What the Jewish people went through throughout the war & after should never be forgotten.
As you move around the museum & into the details about the holocaust, it becomes very emotional. Each photo has a description of what it is & the story behind the photo. I'm not someone who gets emotional easily, but the one photo I've uploaded with this review made me as a father well up. What the Jewish people went through throughout the war & after should never be forgotten.
Written January 30, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Tatiana S
Belgrade, Serbia15 contributions
Sep 2023 • Couples
The exhibition consisted of 5 areas which are supported by many pictures. The narrative is explaining the Jewish peoples in Poland. It's like a one side story, I thought it would have been a little different somehow.
Overall an average museum, I just wasn't impressed, I wanted to learn more then I have learned today. It didn't really tell me anything knew. I already knew all about the holocaust. So I didn't learn anything so I can't give it a good review. Very sad to see though.
Overall an average museum, I just wasn't impressed, I wanted to learn more then I have learned today. It didn't really tell me anything knew. I already knew all about the holocaust. So I didn't learn anything so I can't give it a good review. Very sad to see though.
Written October 4, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Jane2806
Livingston, UK213 contributions
Jul 2022
More an exhibition than a museum in the true sense of the word, as the history was told mostly in photographs rather than artefacts, but moving none the less. Heartbreaking (and sometimes uplifting) to read the stories of individual lives before, during and after the war. Definitely worth visiting
Written July 25, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Siobhan M
73 contributions
Aug 2022
I really enjoyed the exhibitions in this museum. They are mainly photographic and narrative in nature, as opposed to artefacts - but I like this sort of thing. I learned a lot about the Jewish experience in Krakow, especially during the Holocaust. I have given it only four stars (instead of five) because there was one section that was not available in English (the QR code to dowlonad the English captions didn't work), and there was no seating for older people or those with bad backs - like me. But overall, this was a great place to visit if you're interested in modern history.
Written August 7, 2022
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
genibre69
London, UK5,264 contributions
Oct 2020 • Solo
I only expected to spend about 20 minutes here but that turned about 1.5 hours. The photo exhibition on Jewish history and monuments in Galicia is excellent and fully translated into English. The captions succinctly describe the haunting photos. The museum is included in the Krakow Card.
Written October 17, 2020
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
RachelGottlieb
New York City, NY1 contribution
For many centuries, Krakow and the province of Galicia was the diamond of Jewish scholarship and society in Central Europe. WWII changed all that. The Germans decimated the lives of over 16,000 Jews from the Kazimierz, (Krakow's Jewish quarter), and went on an extermination rampage throughout the province.
This sad history is often why most tourists, like myself, visiting Southern Poland for the first time, traditionally seek out the graveyard of Jewish life at sites like the former camps of Plaszow and Auschwitz.
But I found that one of Krakow's best kept secrets is the Galicia Jewish Museum, located at 18 Dajwor Street in the heart of the Kazimierz. The Museum, housed in a former furniture factory, is the ultimate place to visit if you want to be heartened and enlightened by the restoration of Jewish culture in this lovely city.
While cherishing the memory of the Holocaust, the institution is a vital and important wellspring that joyously celebrates the Jewish history and culture of Galicia.
Its existence is owed to the dedication and vision of one man, British photojournalist, Chris Schwarz, whose mission in creating the Museum was to commemorate Polish Jewry from a completely new perspective. In addition, he hopes the facility will also provide a forum for multi-cultural dialogue and understanding, and for the dissemination of exhibitions and publications to wider audiences around the world.
Recent exhibitions and events have included: an International Day for Darfur; a live performance of an ancient Sanskrit drama, an exhibition of paintings inspired by the Song of Songs and a cooperative photographic exhibition in tribute to the Polish Righteous Among the Nations.
There is also a permanent installation of large format photographs by Chris Schwarz called Traces of Memory, that offer a portrait of Jewish life and culture in Polish Galicia that can still be seen today, interpreting these traces in a manner which is informative, accessible, and thought-provoking.
The Museum’s continuing education program provides lectures and seminars on Jewish history, Holocaust studies, traditional dance forms, and lessons in Yiddish and Hebrew. I was fortunate to attend a evening of Klezmer music there that had the whole place rocking!
The Museum's Media Resource Centre is open to the public and houses a continually growing collection of films on various Jewish and Holocaust related themes, including a permanent collection of USC Shoah Foundation testimonies.
I browsed the book store which is one of the largest in Poland devoted to Jewish material, with an ever-growing number of titles in English, Polish, and German.
I found most of the staff bi-lingual and very ultra-friendly, and there is a very fine coffee shop where visitors can rest their weary feet and enjoy the permanent exhibits.
The Galicia Jewish Museum is open daily from 9.00 AM till 7.00 PM in the summer and from 9.30 AM till 5.30 PM in the winter, and closed only for Yom Kippur. Ticket prices are amazingly low for the value of a visit, costing 7 zlotys for regular admission and 5 zlotys for students.
************
This sad history is often why most tourists, like myself, visiting Southern Poland for the first time, traditionally seek out the graveyard of Jewish life at sites like the former camps of Plaszow and Auschwitz.
But I found that one of Krakow's best kept secrets is the Galicia Jewish Museum, located at 18 Dajwor Street in the heart of the Kazimierz. The Museum, housed in a former furniture factory, is the ultimate place to visit if you want to be heartened and enlightened by the restoration of Jewish culture in this lovely city.
While cherishing the memory of the Holocaust, the institution is a vital and important wellspring that joyously celebrates the Jewish history and culture of Galicia.
Its existence is owed to the dedication and vision of one man, British photojournalist, Chris Schwarz, whose mission in creating the Museum was to commemorate Polish Jewry from a completely new perspective. In addition, he hopes the facility will also provide a forum for multi-cultural dialogue and understanding, and for the dissemination of exhibitions and publications to wider audiences around the world.
Recent exhibitions and events have included: an International Day for Darfur; a live performance of an ancient Sanskrit drama, an exhibition of paintings inspired by the Song of Songs and a cooperative photographic exhibition in tribute to the Polish Righteous Among the Nations.
There is also a permanent installation of large format photographs by Chris Schwarz called Traces of Memory, that offer a portrait of Jewish life and culture in Polish Galicia that can still be seen today, interpreting these traces in a manner which is informative, accessible, and thought-provoking.
The Museum’s continuing education program provides lectures and seminars on Jewish history, Holocaust studies, traditional dance forms, and lessons in Yiddish and Hebrew. I was fortunate to attend a evening of Klezmer music there that had the whole place rocking!
The Museum's Media Resource Centre is open to the public and houses a continually growing collection of films on various Jewish and Holocaust related themes, including a permanent collection of USC Shoah Foundation testimonies.
I browsed the book store which is one of the largest in Poland devoted to Jewish material, with an ever-growing number of titles in English, Polish, and German.
I found most of the staff bi-lingual and very ultra-friendly, and there is a very fine coffee shop where visitors can rest their weary feet and enjoy the permanent exhibits.
The Galicia Jewish Museum is open daily from 9.00 AM till 7.00 PM in the summer and from 9.30 AM till 5.30 PM in the winter, and closed only for Yom Kippur. Ticket prices are amazingly low for the value of a visit, costing 7 zlotys for regular admission and 5 zlotys for students.
************
Written June 13, 2007
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
GlobeTrotting9204
Santa Rosa, California3 contributions
While visiting the Jewish quarter of Krakow, Poland, we happened upon a fairly new "museum" called the Galicia. Their permanent exhibit called "Traces of Memory" is one of the most potent and memorable presentations I have ever seen. The exhibition is a photographic tribute to Poland's vanished Jewish heritage. The large photos both informed and moved us and brought some closure to our reactions from other Jewish sites we had seen in Poland (like Auschwitz) as well as other Jewish places in Eastern Europe. The photos are the work of 2 photographers who also have added explanations and comments to each photo. The whole exhibit will only take about an hour to go through, but you'll be sorry if you miss seeing this stunning display.
Written December 9, 2005
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
mbsherman
Seattle, WA2 contributions
May 2015 • Couples
The Galicia Jewish Museum features the photo-journalism of Chris Schwarz, a brilliant photographer who chronicled the remnants of the slaughtered Jewish Polish community post-Holocaust. Though the photographs and their accompanying commentary are, in themselves, evocative of great empathy and delineate a history of the Jews in Galicia, an area linking parts of southern Poland and Ukraine, the explication of the exhibit by our guide, Kamila Czerkawska, brought a truly touching and thought-provoking dimension to the photographs.
Ms. Czerkawska is a young non-Jewish woman from a small town whose Jewish population, once 40% of the town's citizenry, was entirely destroyed, leaving only the ruins of the Jewish cemetery. Her grandparents died young and her parents grew up under the Soviet suppression of Jewish history and knew nothing about the pre-war Jewish occupants or their fates. Her curiosity about the remnants of the Jewish cemetery led her to an academic pursuit of Jewish Studies.
The museum exhibit delineates the Galician Jewish history in 5 stages through Chris Schwarz's photographs. One might expect horrific photographs of Nazi brutality or its victims to be featured but what we see is what Mr. Schwarz saw - a synagogue in ruins overgrown with vegetation; Jewish tombstones (matzevot), their inscriptions turned and buried face down, repurposed as paving stones by the war-ravaged Poles whose children are now haunted by the mysterious inexplicable Hebrew squiggles the stones imprint in the earth.
Ms. Czerkawska compellingly told the stories of these photographs, pointing out the irony of the Nazis decorating the Krakow ghetto walls and how the wall-shape resembled an endless line of tombstones. As we stood before a photograph of an empty, flat meadow giving way to untouched forest, Ms. Czerkawska told us we were seeing Belzec - the extermination camp into which the entirety of the 500,000 Galician Jews were herded and murdered - seeing it the way the civilian Poles saw it after the Nazis left, no trace of bodies or of the killing mechanisms used. The Nazis cleared the entirety of the Belzec death camp and left, Ms. Czerkawska explained, not out of fear of reprisal or condemnation, not chased by any Allied forces coming to liberate Jews from Belzec. They cleared and left Belzec a meadow and a forest because they had destroyed every Galician Jew and simply cleaned up and left. In the voice of Ms. Czerkawska, as she told this story, we could hear the heart wrenching horror and the very definition of what Hannah Arendt called "the banality of evil."
Through her commentary on the museum's exhibition, Ms. Czerkawska conveyed the central theme of the museum - that the Holocaust itself does not define the history, social, and cultural contributions of the Galician Jews nor did the Holocaust end these, though it did extinguish the entire Galician Jewish population. There are a couple of ironies that both illuminate that message and cast upon it dark shadows.
First, Chris Schwarz was the son of a Jewish father and a Catholic mother. Religious Jews recognize Jewish lineage only through the mother. And so, this artist/historian who founded the Galicia Jewish Museum; whose eyes and heart recognized and captured so poignantly the place of Galician Jews in the soul of Poland; who died young of prostate cancer, was not allowed to be buried in any of the dozens of Jewish cemeteries he photographed. Had he lived during the Nazi era, he would have been Jewish enough to have been exterminated but not Jewish enough to be ritually interred with his fellow Jews.
Secondly, the restoration of the ruins of the synagogues, cemeteries, and traditional structures that defined Galician Jewish life is, for the most part, not being carried out by the tiny population of surviving Polish Jews. Many of these Jews have despaired of ever being truly recognized as full-fledged Polish citizens and have left Poland. Many, raised during the Soviet era, are only just now beginning to suspect that they might have Jewish roots. In any case, most of the restorations and celebrations of Polish Jewish life are being carried out by young non-Jewish Poles, like Ms. Czerkawska, who see this as a vital part of the totality of Poland's political, scientific, artistic, and cultural heritage. I take heart from the fact that there are people like Chris Schwarz and Kamila Czerkawska who will never forget.
Ms. Czerkawska is a young non-Jewish woman from a small town whose Jewish population, once 40% of the town's citizenry, was entirely destroyed, leaving only the ruins of the Jewish cemetery. Her grandparents died young and her parents grew up under the Soviet suppression of Jewish history and knew nothing about the pre-war Jewish occupants or their fates. Her curiosity about the remnants of the Jewish cemetery led her to an academic pursuit of Jewish Studies.
The museum exhibit delineates the Galician Jewish history in 5 stages through Chris Schwarz's photographs. One might expect horrific photographs of Nazi brutality or its victims to be featured but what we see is what Mr. Schwarz saw - a synagogue in ruins overgrown with vegetation; Jewish tombstones (matzevot), their inscriptions turned and buried face down, repurposed as paving stones by the war-ravaged Poles whose children are now haunted by the mysterious inexplicable Hebrew squiggles the stones imprint in the earth.
Ms. Czerkawska compellingly told the stories of these photographs, pointing out the irony of the Nazis decorating the Krakow ghetto walls and how the wall-shape resembled an endless line of tombstones. As we stood before a photograph of an empty, flat meadow giving way to untouched forest, Ms. Czerkawska told us we were seeing Belzec - the extermination camp into which the entirety of the 500,000 Galician Jews were herded and murdered - seeing it the way the civilian Poles saw it after the Nazis left, no trace of bodies or of the killing mechanisms used. The Nazis cleared the entirety of the Belzec death camp and left, Ms. Czerkawska explained, not out of fear of reprisal or condemnation, not chased by any Allied forces coming to liberate Jews from Belzec. They cleared and left Belzec a meadow and a forest because they had destroyed every Galician Jew and simply cleaned up and left. In the voice of Ms. Czerkawska, as she told this story, we could hear the heart wrenching horror and the very definition of what Hannah Arendt called "the banality of evil."
Through her commentary on the museum's exhibition, Ms. Czerkawska conveyed the central theme of the museum - that the Holocaust itself does not define the history, social, and cultural contributions of the Galician Jews nor did the Holocaust end these, though it did extinguish the entire Galician Jewish population. There are a couple of ironies that both illuminate that message and cast upon it dark shadows.
First, Chris Schwarz was the son of a Jewish father and a Catholic mother. Religious Jews recognize Jewish lineage only through the mother. And so, this artist/historian who founded the Galicia Jewish Museum; whose eyes and heart recognized and captured so poignantly the place of Galician Jews in the soul of Poland; who died young of prostate cancer, was not allowed to be buried in any of the dozens of Jewish cemeteries he photographed. Had he lived during the Nazi era, he would have been Jewish enough to have been exterminated but not Jewish enough to be ritually interred with his fellow Jews.
Secondly, the restoration of the ruins of the synagogues, cemeteries, and traditional structures that defined Galician Jewish life is, for the most part, not being carried out by the tiny population of surviving Polish Jews. Many of these Jews have despaired of ever being truly recognized as full-fledged Polish citizens and have left Poland. Many, raised during the Soviet era, are only just now beginning to suspect that they might have Jewish roots. In any case, most of the restorations and celebrations of Polish Jewish life are being carried out by young non-Jewish Poles, like Ms. Czerkawska, who see this as a vital part of the totality of Poland's political, scientific, artistic, and cultural heritage. I take heart from the fact that there are people like Chris Schwarz and Kamila Czerkawska who will never forget.
Written May 15, 2015
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
hi does the museum have disability access and disabity toilets I will shortly brcome a pensioner and have disability is there any discount and how much is entry with thanks
Written November 7, 2018
Yes, it is wheelchair accessible it's all on the flat with wide access and there is a disabled toilet. Adult entry is 16zl (c £4) there are some discounts with the various tourist cards or bus tour tickets but you need to cover a lot of attractions to get your money's worth on some of them.
Written November 7, 2018
Does the museum have audioguide in italian language?
Thank you very much for your answer!
Written August 21, 2018
Mi dispiace, ma non siamo entrati dentro il museo.
Written August 28, 2018
Does the Galicia Museum have a database of Jewish families that lived in Stryja in the late 19th century and early 20th century, some of whom may have perished in yhe Holocaust?
Written April 18, 2017
Dear,
There are no databases at the museum, perhaps the following pages could help you.
- Gesher Galicia
- Virtual Sztetl Tour
- Jewish Gen
- Jewish Historical Institute (jhi)
Kind regards
Written April 19, 2017
Hello Greetings from Michael in Ireland . I am staying beside main square in Krakow
Is it easy for me to find The Galicia Jewish Museum Hope to see you in first week in September
Regards Michael in Ireland my email is
Thank you
Written July 17, 2016
I stayed in a similar location to where you will be. It's a leisurely walk (maybe 30 mins max) or a 10 mins taxi ride. Enjoy :)
Written July 31, 2016
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