The Upper Silesian Museum in Bytom is currently one of the most important stops on the museum map of the Śląskie Province, distinguished by its regional character. For more than 100 years, the museum has collected and displayed exhibits on history, archaeology, ethnography, art and nature. The institution's projects aim to show culture in dialogue, holistically, in its tangible and intangible aspects while emphasising the Silesian perspective.
The museum's collection, which comprises the collections of the History Department and the Art Department, brings together objects related to religious practices (Judaica), historical and archival collections and works of art. A separate part of the collection is a digitised collection of volumes from the former Jewish Prayer House in Bytom, available in the repository of the Silesian Library in Katowice (https://www.sbc.org.pl/dlibra/collectiondescription/453).
The History Department's collection documents the history of the Upper Silesian Jews who lived in Bytom until World War II and then expatriated from the Eastern Borderlands and settled in the city. In 2017, the museum received the furnishings of the then-liquidated seat of the Jewish House of Prayer as a gift from the Jewish Community in Katowice. The objects, weaving together pre- and post-war history into a single whole, have been displayed since 2021 in a permanent exhibition entitled "Mark of Generations. From the synagogue to the Jewish House of Prayer in Bytom". The Art Department's collection includes works by many prominent Jewish artists, including Maurycy and Leopold Gottlieb, Roman Kramsztyk, Zygmunt Menkes, Erna Rosenstein, and Maciej and Zdzisław Lachur.
