Dansk Jødisk Museum (Danish Jewish Museum) is dedicated to the Jewish minority’s history and culture in Denmark dating from the 16th century to present day. The museum houses a small permanent collection and shows various rotating exhibitions. One of the greatest draws of the museum, though, is its interiors, designed by American architect Daniel Libeskind (who also designed the Jewish Museum in Berlin and the Freedom Tower—to be constructed on the site of the World Trade Center—in New York).

The museum’s slanting walls, sloping floors and projecting angles can appear daunting to the visitor, almost like a surrealist maze, but there is reason supporting the seemingly chaotic structure. Focusing on what Libeskind felt was the Danish Jewish Museum’s unique angle, the architecture symbolically speaks of how, in October of 1943, resolute Danes smuggled most of the country’s Jews into neighboring Sweden, thereby saving them. The walls of the museum, therefore, form the four Hebrew letters of the word Mitzvah, which is used to describe an act of human kindness, or good deed.

The museum is housed in the old structure known as Galejhuset, which with its vaulted stone walls—combined with Libeskinds angled walls—creates an interesting architectural dialogue between old and new.