The Wiener Holocaust Library and Designation Status
The Wiener Holocaust Library is the world’s oldest Holocaust archive and Britain’s largest collection on the Nazi era, the causes, and legacies of the Holocaust.
The Jewish Central Information Office was set up by Dr Alfred Wiener in 1933, opening its doors in Amsterdam in February 1934. This 90-year history makes the collection the most extensive and diverse archives of the Holocaust worldwide. The Wiener Holocaust Library is the world’s oldest continuously functioning archive documenting Nazi crimes.
After operating in London since 1939, the Library moved to its current home on Russell Square in 2011. Its unique collection informs a programme of exhibitions, events, education outreach and wider engagement. Online resources such as the Refugee Map and The Holocaust Explained use sources from the collection to inform and educate global audiences on the Holocaust and its consequences.
Today the Printed and Audio Visual collections of the Library include over 50,000 books, 15,000 pamphlets, 600 posters, 500 unpublished memoirs and 500 manuscripts and a large number of videos and tapes. The photograph collections encompass an estimated 40,000 items, including photos of concentration camps and ghettos, the Kindertransports, the Lvov pogrom, and post-war Displaced Persons and Jewish relief efforts.
Out of more than 1,600 catalogued collections, some of the most used papers are those of organisations such as the Board of Deputies, the Reunion of the Kindertransport, and the Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens (Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith). Our extensive collection of Nuremberg War Crimes Trial documents has recently been digitised.
Our holdings include many rare items difficult to find elsewhere, with unique and cohesive collections on the Holocaust, Jewish European history, and antisemitism. Over our 90-year history, the subjects covered by our books and pamphlets have expanded to include the history of Nazism more broadly, anti-fascism and anti-antisemitism, genocides other than the Holocaust, post-war history and culture, and the wider field of Holocaust Studies.
Being a Designated collection is of huge significance to the Library. Our collection comprises the only major repository of Holocaust-related materials that was formed in an effort to resist the Nazi onslaught on the Jews of Europe before and as it took place. Our designated status serves to recognise and celebrate not only the collection itself, but also this unique history.
Designation Development Funding (DDF ran from 2017-2022) from Arts Council England enabled us to undertake a ground-breaking project drawing on our collection of refugee family papers. The Refugee Map is an interactive online resource that brings the documents themselves to life in new ways and allows people from all over the world to engage with some of our most valued collections.
