The Wiener Holocaust Library is one of the world’s leading and most extensive archives on the Holocaust, the Nazi era and genocide. The Library’s unique collection of over one million items includes published and unpublished works, press cuttings, photographs and eyewitness testimony.
Our latest exhibition surveys the life and career of Jewish émigré sculptor Fred Kormis, reuniting some of the most important of his diverse works.
Our events programme has resumed with a fascinating programme of talks, book launches, film screenings and exhibition events in our newly revamped exhibition gallery.
The Library is open Monday – Friday, 10am – 5pm.
The Reading Room closes early on Fridays, at 1:30pm
The Library is closed on Bank Holidays.
Monday 21 October: The Reading Room will open later, at 10:30am
Wednesday 23 October: The Library (Exhibition and Reading Room) will open at 11:00am
Friday 6 December: The Exhibition space will be closed
Monday 16 December: the Exhibition space will be closed
If you have a query please email [email protected] or call 0207 636 7247.
For collection related queries please email [email protected].
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The Wiener Holocaust Library
29 Russell Square
London WC1B 5DP
Underground: Russell Square, Goodge Street, King’s Cross
Bus: 188, 168, X68, 7, 59, 68, 91
Rail: Euston and King’s Cross.
Full visiting information
When Fritz (later Fred) Kormis arrived in England (via Holland) in 1934 he was among more than 300 artists, around one-sixth of them sculptors, who found refuge from Nazism in Britain. This talk situates Kormis within this wider context and among a cohort of refugee sculptors who included Benno Elkan, Georg Ehrlich and Willi Soukop, among many others.
Join us for an illustrated lecture by London-based art historian Monica Bohm-Duchen about the émigré sculptors who created so many of the works still visible in public spaces throughout the UK, whose names and life stories nevertheless remain too little examined.
Based on the extraordinary evidence of woodcut prints made by Fred Kormis as a prisoner of war in Siberia, this exhibition talk explores the context of printmaking around 1918. Highlighting the cathartic process of woodcut printing for fellow sculptors and graphic artists Ernst Barlach and Käthe Kollwitz, it considers the qualities of this spare graphic medium that make it suited to the direct expression of existential extremes.
In recent years, demands upon the Library have increased as we face rising antisemitism, racism and Holocaust denial.
Becoming a member is a powerful way you can support us in working towards our wider mission. In return you can enjoy of our exclusive member benefits and know that you are playing a significant role in the future success of the Library.
Search across our documents, books, periodicals, pamphlets and more.
Anyone is welcome to visit and study our collections in the Wolfson Reading Room.
We’re celebrating 90 years of collecting, preserving and sharing evidence of the Holocaust.
Our free educational resource is here to help you learn the essential facts of the Holocaust, its causes and its consequences.
Missed one of our events? Visit our YouTube channel for virtual events, book talks, curator talks and more.
Reawakening Suppressed Music is a three-year project dedicated to recording and sharing some of the silenced symphonic works written by Jewish composers who suffered under the Nazis.
