POLIN Museum was created as a private-public partnership of the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland, which initiated the project, and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and City of Warsaw. Since the Grand Opening in 2014, POLIN Museum has attracted more than 4 million visitors.
The idea to create a museum of the history of Polish Jews originated with the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute in 1993 and gradually attracted widespread interest in Poland and abroad. In 1995, thanks to individual and institutional donors, the museum project began. In 1996, the City of Warsaw allocated the land for the future museum, . which continued as a social initiative until the museum was formally established. Jerzy Halbersztadt played a vital role in the conceptualization and development of the museum. He led the project from 1996 and served as the museum’s first director from 2005 to 2011.
On 25 January 2005, ten years of effort by the Association of the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland finally bore fruit. On the initiative of the Mayor of Warsaw, Lech Kaczyński, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews was formally established as a public-private partnership of the Association, City of Warsaw, and Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. That year an international architectural competition for the building was held. The winner was the Finnish studio Lahdelma & Mahlamäki.
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The Association was responsible for financing and producing the Core Exhibition. The Ministry and City were responsible for paying for the building and overseeing its construction. The Grand Opening of POLIN Museum took place in 2014, with Dariusz Stola as Director. POLIN Museum has won many awards since then, among them the 2016 European Academy Prize.