Dear Friends,
This year the Wiener Holocaust Library is celebrating its 90th birthday. Our rich 90-year history makes us the world’s oldest continuously functioning archive documenting Nazi crimes.
The Jewish Central Information Office was set up by Dr Alfred Wiener in 1933, opening its doors in Amsterdam in February 1934. Since then we have continued to collect, preserve, and share vital evidence. Our extensive and diverse collections relating to the Nazi-era make us one of the world’s foremost archives of the Holocaust, as well as contemporary genocides.
The Library’s work commenced as a warning to those who underestimated Nazi antisemitism and aggression. The scale and brutality of the crimes of the Third Reich were detailed to the British government by the JCIO during the war, and in support of the post-war Nuremberg trials. Many people may not realise that the work to preserve this important evidence, build our collections, and make them accessible to all who wish to learn, continues to this day.
From now until February next year, we will be taking a look back through the Library’s history decade by decade. We will be celebrating the remarkable work that has been undertaken to reach this point, including through exhibitions highlighting our precious collections and events celebrating our unique history.
We hope you’ll join us in contemplating, commemorating and celebrating this incredible milestone. I can’t wait to share what we have in store.
Best wishes,
Dr Toby Simpson, Director
The 2020s / The Wiener Holocaust Library Today
We start our celebration of the our history by looking at the Library in 2023, including contemporary achievements in creating an institution for the digital age.
The 2010s / The Library’s new home
Explore our new base at 29 Russell Square, and how this helped us to develop our expanding outreach programme.
The 2000s / Generations
We examine how Holocaust survivors’ lives and experiences made an impact by interacting with younger generations.
We are an independent charity dependent on your support…
In order to continue our vital work, and be able to celebrate further milestones, we need to raise over a quarter of a million pounds each year. This is only possible with your help. With your support we can continue to be a world leading Holocaust archive, offer a vital learning resource to oppose anti-Semitism and other forms of prejudice and preserve our archive for future generations so they can learn the lessons of the past.
Please consider supporting us today.
The Wiener Library is a unique institution whose depth of knowledge, range of archival material and understanding of the different aspects of Nazism and the Holocaust is unmatched across the 90 years of its existence. Its work now is as valuable and necessary as ever.
Dr Dave Rich, Author and Director of Policy at the Community Security Trust
