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POLIN Museum launches digital project to preserve Jewish keepsakes from prewar Poland

27.01.2026 14:30
Spoons, sewing machines, tiles and letters — everyday items once belonging to Polish Jews — are being digitally collected through a new online platform launched by the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
The collected items will form the basis of a traveling exhibition, featuring photographs, maps, and memories that illuminate Jewish everyday life in Poland before World War II.
The collected items will form the basis of a traveling exhibition, featuring photographs, maps, and memories that illuminate Jewish everyday life in Poland before World War II.Photo: POLIN

The project, called przechowane.org, encourages individuals across Poland to share photos and stories of Jewish objects kept in their homes. The initiative is a collaboration between POLIN and researchers from Humboldt University in Berlin and Jagiellonian University in Kraków.

“We want anyone who has preserved a Jewish memento to share its story,” said Piotr Ostrowski of the museum’s digital collections department. “These may be modest, even damaged items, but they hold priceless memories of people no longer with us.”

The project does not require contributors to donate the objects themselves. Instead, users are invited to upload photographs and brief descriptions through the website. Participants can also consult museum researchers for help interpreting inscriptions or identifying the history of their items.

The collected items will form the basis of a traveling exhibition, featuring photographs, maps, and memories that illuminate Jewish everyday life in Poland before World War II.

(jh)

Source: IAR, POLIN