Schoen Palace Museum in Sosnowiec

Schoen Palace Museum in Sosnowiec

The Schoen Palace Museum in Sosnowiec is a local government cultural institution of the Sosnowiec Municipality. It is housed in a historic palace built at the end of the 19th century by Ernst Schoen. Until 1945, the palace was the ancestral home of German textile manufacturers. The core of the museum's activities is preserving the cultural heritage of Sosnowiec, rooted in the traditions of the Dąbrowa Basin. The museum compiles collections on the city's history and culture, archaeology, and contemporary art related to the local artistic community. It has the most extensive collection of contemporary Polish glass (approximately 9,000 objects) in the country, with artefacts from almost all glassworks operating after 1945. 
The museum primarily caters for local residents. A broad programme offers exhibitions and educational and journalistic activities aimed at audiences of all ages. The museum seeks to strengthen community ties and local identity by engaging in a dialogue with the past. It focuses on the city, not forgetting universal values, national commemorative events and world cultural heritage. 

 

The Schoen Palace Museum in Sosnowiec has a collection of more than 30 Judaica artefacts. These objects are important for understanding the multicultural history of the city. These include Hanukkah lamps, besamim boxes, Torah scrolls, a ritual slaughter knife, a Passover Seder plate, Kiddush cups, Torah mantles and more.
Few items directly related to the Jewish inhabitants of Sosnowiec have survived. One of them is the document concerning the election of the members of the Synagogue Supervision in Sosnowiec. The collection also includes a catalogue of the 'Galmet' Metal Haberdashery Factory and dies of the factory's products from the interwar period, owned by the Jewish merchants Goldberg and Kucyński. Three postcards are among the few objects related to the daily life of Jews: the first, dated 1919, depicts one of the HeHalutz organisation's vegetable gardens; the other two show the merchant life of Jews in the Three Emperors' Corner. Another interesting artefact is a medallion with Jewish inscriptions, dating from the interwar period, found during archaeological excavations in the Zagórze district. There is an album from the years of occupation with some photographs taken in the Środula ghetto, also known as the Sosnowiec-Będzin ghetto.