The museum was established in April 2004 by the British photojournalist Chris Schwarz (whose father originated from Lwów), in cooperation with Professor Jonathan Webber of UNESCO,[1] in an effort to celebrate the Jewish culture of the Polish Galicia and commemorate the victims of the Holocaust in Poland.

In 2012, exhibitions included Anxiety Holocaust art of Ryszard Apte; and On the Other Side of the Torah Wartime Portraits from Tübingen with audio and video; Wherever I Go, I'm Always Going to Jerusalem... by the School of Fine Arts in Częstochowa competition winners; and photographs of Cracovian Jews Poland and Palestine: Two Lands and Two Skies by Ze’ev (Wilhelm) Aleksandrowicz who was born in Kraków in 1905, and died in Tel Aviv in 1992.

In 2011, exhibitions included Portraits of an Intellectual and Political Landscape sculptural-paintings and serigraphs by Bernard Aptekar from New York City; photography by Yoram Gross in Look Closer; and works by renown American artist Fay Grajower, member of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, entitled Bletern: Images and Words devoted to Polish Yiddish women poets.

[12] The museum provides opportunities for groups to meet with local recipients of the Polish Righteous Among the Nations Awards as well as Holocaust and concentration camp survivors.

In addition to tours and meetings, the museum's education centre offers workshops, lectures, and seminars on Jewish religion and culture and the Holocaust for different age groups.