This is how the permanent exhibition of the Warsaw Ghetto Museum is created

The entire process of placing such a large object at the construction site was an extraordinary logistical challenge and required precise planning of the entire project, starting with transporting the wagon to the museum construction site, through proper preparation of the site, to installing and securing it.

Placement of a scenographic element – a covered freight wagon on the MGW construction site. | photo: Robert Wilczyński

Before it was placed in the museum, the railcar was restored and given a first stylization to make it look like it did during World War II. After the construction of the World War II museum is finished, the railcar will be given another stylization, this time in the enclosed space of the building.

The permanent exhibition, which is currently being prepared, will be divided into nine galleries and spread over seven floors in the revitalized former Bersohn and Bauman Children’s Hospital. The wagon will be located in the Groβaktion Warschau 1942 gallery, which tells the story of the large-scale deportation of Jews to extermination camps. It was in freight wagons like this that the German Nazis transported people.

In creating each element of the permanent exhibition, we strive to describe the tragic events of more than eighty years ago, focusing on the voices of the victims, especially those who were neglected and forgotten after the war. These are the voices of women, children, refugees, displaced persons, and excluded groups. It is also the voices of religious Jews, whose experience, although it was the broadest experience of the Warsaw Ghetto, has been completely silenced and about which we know very little. At the exhibition, we give them all a space so that their story is fully heard.

Implementation of the project “Renovation and extension of the historic buildings of the former Bersohn and Bauman Children’s Hospital at ul. Sienna 60/Śliska 51 in Warsaw, including their adaptation for exhibition and educational purposes and the construction of the Media Library – part of the permanent exhibition of the Museum of the Warsaw Ghetto” is possible thanks to funding from the European Funds for Infrastructure, Climate and Environment 2021-2027 (EFICE) program. The amount of funding from the European Regional Development Fund is PLN 57,423,828.88. The total value of the project is PLN 323,879,688.83.