The Galicia Jewish Museum occupies a converted industrial building at Dajwór 18 in Kazimierz, Kraków’s historic Jewish quarter. Founded in 2004 by British photojournalist Chris Schwarz, it uses photography to explore the Jewish past of Polish Galicia, honour Holocaust victims, and counter the idea that this history ended in 1945.
The centrepiece is “Traces of Memory,” a permanent exhibition built on Schwarz’s photographs of surviving synagogues, overgrown cemeteries, and former Jewish homes across southern Poland, with interpretive texts by anthropologist Jonathan Webber. A second photographic presentation adds another lens on Galician Jewish life. A permanent exhibition created for younger visitors uses illustrations and interactive elements to introduce Jewish tradition, religious concepts, and history (Galicia Jewish Museum). Rotating temporary shows, lectures, and concerts fill out the programme, and the on-site bookshop stocks one of the city’s strongest selections on Jewish and Holocaust history.
Visitor Highlights & Practical Info
The museum opens daily from 10:00 to 18:00, and standard tickets cost 35 PLN (muzea.org.pl). Allow about two hours. Weekday mornings are quieter than summer afternoons, when Kazimierz walking tours pass through. Check the website for event schedules and guided-tour bookings before you go. Szeroka Street and the Old Synagogue are a short walk away, and trams stop nearby on Starowiślna Street. Pair your visit with Schindler’s Factory across the river in Podgórze.
