The knowledge of Jewish history and culture is at present not easily accessible for those that are not fluent in English. This concerns also the knowledge about the Holocaust – many (especially young) people cannot even define this term. For these reasons the Foundation has decided in 2006 to create a multimedia web portal that would present the history of Jewish communities in Poland.

Since then the portal developes and provides information concerning development of Jewish communities in Polish towns, the Holocaust and the monuments of Jewish material heritage. It is available in two language versions: Polish and English. I's address is: www.polin.org.pl

The web portal contains information on towns where the Jews had lived before the WWII (target number of ca. 1200 - it is the number of pre-war Jewish cemeteries that are situated within the present borders of Poland). Texts concerning each community are accompanied by visual material: numerous contemporary and archival photos, films and 3D panoramas of the most significant monuments. The towns are marked on a virtual map of Poland, which allows locating them in a fast and easy way. Historical texts are prepared by students and graduates of the Jewish Studies Department of the Łódź University. At this moment the portal contains information on nearly 500 towns and cities (ultimately there will be 1,200 of them), as well as over 13 000 pictures and over 130 movies.

Each town’s website provides information including:

We also encourage people to share their materials with us - everyone can create his own account on POLIN and add photos, texts, films etc. The material has to be accepted by the administrator before being published on-line. Each sub-website has a special field for comments and suggestions. We hope this will be a place of fruitful discussions which will make POLIN even more topical, especially regarding the most recent activities in the towns.

The Foundation informs schools from all over Poland about the project. We want the portal to become a source of knowledge for students and teachers who often have serious difficulties finding information concerning the history of Jews in Poland (this refers especially to schools in small towns, where there are no public libraries with relevant resources). We find it particularly important facing the fact that April the 19th (the anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising) has been declared the Holocaust Remembrance Day by the Ministry of Education. The portal is also intended to serve university students and scholars as a starting point for their research.

The POLIN web portal was created thanks to the support of the Polish Ministry of Interior and Administration, the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research and the Taube Foundation for Jewish life and Culture.