While many people will be familiar with the name Gdansk because of its connections with Solidarity and Lech Wałęsa, it is also known under its German name Danzig as the place where the first shots of World War II were fired. It was under the pretext of incorporating Danzig into the Third Reich that Hitler attacked the Polish garrison at Westerplatte and the Polish Post Office within the Free City of Danzig, early on the morning of September 1, 1939. A conflict that would go onto claim 55 million lives therefore started here and now there are plans to commemorate this with the building of a new museum to be called The Museum of the Second World War.

With the encouragement of the Gdansk-born Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a competition was opened to find a design for the new museum. With a judging panel which included the likes of Daniel Liebeskind and the art historian and Director of the Museum of London Jack Lohman, the Kwadrat architectural studio from the nearby city of Gdynia was chosen to design the new museum. They have created a design which they claim will become a symbol of the city in much the same way that the Crane or St. Mary’s church are today.

To be built on land on (D-2) ul. Wałowa donated to the museum by the city of Gdansk, the museum will find itself next to the Radunia Canal and the symbolic Polish Post Office building on Pl. Obrońców Poczty Polskiej. With over 4,000 sq. metres of exhibition space the museum will be similar in size to that of the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. and is planned to cost around 230 million zloty. Building should begin in 2012 and be completed in time for the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War on September 1, 2014.

The plans are to show the tragic fate of Poland in the years 1939-1945 set against the broader background of the global conflict. For the moment you will find a permanent outdoor exhibition located on the Westerplatte and entitled ‘Westerplatte: Spa-Bastion-Symbol . The series of outdoor displays show the life of the peninsula from its formation, through its development as a popular spa resort and the famous battle as the start of WWII to the significance it played in the policies of the communist authorities up to 1989.

In preparation for the opening of the new museum, the organizers have appealed for personal belongings linked to the stories of individuals and families in order to show how the huge scale destruction, terror and suffering that the war brought, touched individuals. Of interest to them are photographs, letters, personal documents, press clippings, clothing, uniforms etc. as they try to show life on all the fronts and in the different camps. Conscious of how many of these items will form important memories for families, the museum is offering to pay for items to be copied and these copies to be placed in the new museum’s collection. They ask that anyone interested in making a donation to the new museum contact them using the details here.