Museum of the Second World War

Amazing experience! Provides a well rounded view of WW2 and on how history repeats it self. Will return! Although the audio guide says it will take ~2 hours - this is easily a 5/6 hour adventure - even a complete day trip. Take your time to sit through all the small movies and documentaries playing inside - we watched one explaining how polish children were kidnapped and adopted by german families that was particularly heartbreaking to watch. Take a bottle of water with you - there is no place to drink water once you're inside. Excellent installations (spoiler - they even have a couple of tanks!! in there).

We went to the museum on a Tuesday afternoon, not realising that on Tuesdays, the museum is free to visit which is wonderful! We didn’t book or buy a ticket in advance, but it’s generally recommended to do so due to limitations of how many visitors are allowed in the museum at a time. When we arrived, the main entrance was closed with a few people arriving a bit before us. The people ahead of us asked a security guard for directions on how to get in, and they were told to form a queue near the main entrance, as there’s too many visitors at the moment. We waited about 10-15 minutes before being let in. I think that this system could be organised a lot better, as there were no signs or obvious indicators that we simply had to queue to be able to get inside, as the doors were closed and no representative was waiting outside. To get to the main exhibition, you have to go down to the very bottom floor, which has a souvenir shop, info desk, toilets, seating area, cafe, lockers for backpacks and a section to get an audio guide from. We got a free ticket by going to the info desk and also a small black coin to use in the lockers to store our larger bag (security at the entrance to the main exhibition will likely turn you away from the queue if you have a backpack). The main exhibition was very informative and laid out in a nice, logical way - lots of reading material, videos that played on repeat with subtitles, and pictures/items to view. Make sure to give yourself a few hours if you wish to not rush through the whole experience, it takes about 2-3 hours to go through the main exhibition. The top most floor has also a small exhibition, which covers a bit about the history of the site where the museum was built. Overall a very interesting museum, definitely worth a visit!

TLDR: Best museum ever. Takes at least 5 hours to visit, can easily be a whole day trip. Has 17 perfectly designed rooms. Brutal, gigantic, meticulously set up. Stories are shocking, and imagery ranges and covers all there is: pre-war tensions, early, mid, and late war battles, how life revolved in Poland mostly during WWII, but it covers the whole of Europe as well. So many details were added, and efforts were phenomenal to add layers to this museum, hardly ever seen. There are real-sized props that blow your mind, like a full-size street of Poland before the war, with shop windows filled with time-relevant merchandise and flyers. There is a children's room with a classroom from that age, a school diary, and mark notes from one of the children. But each room has so much to offer, filled with lots of interactive monitors with stories, video testimonials, etc. At one point, there is an Enigma device to encode and decode any word you wish, very well made. Several images and stories are shocking, sad, and utterly depressing. It does take a good stomach to go through all of this, especially through the terror section with most of the crimes described in detail, followed by uncensored grave diggings, etc. We came here two times in two days. The first day, we spent 2.5 hours and covered only half of the museum. The next day, we spent another three hours here. It could've been more, but there's only so much you can actually read about this topic. It ends with a perfect modern-day video showcasing ongoing worldwide conflicts, reminding us that war books are still being written. P.S. audio guide is for sure worth it.

An absolutely incredible museum — a must-visit in Gdańsk! The exhibitions are powerful, emotional, and very well presented, giving deep insight into World War II from many perspectives. Everything is modern, well-organized, and easy to follow. You can easily spend a few hours here. Highly recommended for anyone interested in history

It was said this was the best WWII Museum and it certainly lives up to that reputation. Entered the museum at 11am finally exited at 3pm and enjoyed every part of the exhibitions. Audio guide was worth the Zloty 12.00 per person. The photos do not do it justice, would highly recommend.

Absolutely great museum to be seen in Gdansk. You could walk there for hours. It's well organised and there is few shops where you can have a coffee. Tuesday is usually free entrance. You can leave your coat in wardrobe and get a number for it.

Museum of the Second World War is one of the most interesting museums in Europe. Everything is designed and displayed well, story line is amazingly crafted. It touches every aspect of the war, brings the stories of the ordinary people, it is impossible to leave without tears. It is a must visit for all the visitors of Gdansk.

Thoroughly brilliant. As they say, "Education is everything." The whole experience from start to finish is sobering but we'll worth taking the time. It will take around 3 hours to go through each exhibition but it is well worth it. From the 1920's until the end of WW2, everything is explained in detail. Well worth the time to visit.

Spent 6 hours here - I found this place incredibly moving. I highly recommend getting the audio in English. Even though there is English on the photos and exhibit, the audio knew exactly where you were in the building, I would tell you which way to turn and gave much more context to the exhibits. It really drove home the fact that Poland was Ground Zero for World War II, and lost more civilians then any other country. The United States was mentioned just in passing, as ending the war in the Pacific by dropping nuclear bombs. It was a great learning experience to really appreciate the devastation to Poland and the rest of Europe. This museum was a highlight of our visit to Poland.

Amazing security, very friendly and assisting. The museums architecture also makes the museum feel more alive, the exhibitions are very informative as well.

Fantastic museum with plenty of information to keep visitors engaged for several hours.