The Wiener Holocaust Library

Job opportunity International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance - IHRA for a Digital Content & Social Media Manager! Deadline 15 Sept: http://bit.ly/2M3rkyp

New to our blog - volunteer Miranda Harrison reviews exhibitions of Cornelius Gurlitt's Nazi-era looted art now on at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn and the Kunstmuseum Bern.
"After the allies entered Germany in 1945, the mission to restore these works to their original German and international owners began. This mission, of which Status Report Gurlitt forms a part, very much continues today. Leaving visitors to end where they began, confronted by the collage of the 250 displayed paintings and prints and a host of questions raised and unanswered, the exhibition clearly underlines the work which remains to be done."
Read more: http://bit.ly/2nk2uLS

Missed this month's newsletter? Read about our latest cataloguing project, upcoming Memorial Concert for the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht and the Kindertransport & our new exhibition at the Swiss Cottage Library now: http://bit.ly/2LX1D2v

Our Director Ben Barkow has signed a letter alongside other Holocaust education organisations from across the world, calling on Facebook to do more to remove antisemitism and Holocaust denial.
"Virulent antisemitism is a proven pathway that leads from rhetorical hatred to actions of violence. Freedom of speech laws are not a reason to do nothing - inaction is always the opportunity for evil to flourish."
Read the full letter here: http://bit.ly/2OjA53T

How did Nazi-approved exhibitions allow artists, architects & graphic designers to experiment? Find out at our upcoming event with Michael Tymkiw.
National Socialist exhibitions are largely known for their role in attacking modern art. What is less widely known, however, is that many Nazi exhibitions beyond the fine arts served as surprising sites of formal experimentation for artists, architects, and graphic designers to draw upon and reconfigure modernist ideas and practices. As this talk will explain, a core motivation behind such experimentation was the interest in provoking forms of “engaged spectatorship”—attempts to elicit experiences among exhibition visitors that would spark their desire to become involved in wider processes of social and political change.

MA Culture, Criticism, and Curation students from Central Saint Martins were recently challenged to produce a display in response to the diverse collections we hold.
One group chose to focus on the theme of ‘Arts Resists’ and examined how victims of the Holocaust persisted with artistic practice in the face of persecution, dispossession and violence. This display includes a selection of material relating to Philip Manes, a German Jew and a prolific writer with a lifelong hab...it of keeping records of his experiences. He continued his cultural life in the Theresienstadt ghetto and camp, where he and his wife were sent in 1942, becoming an integral part of this community.
The other chose instead to examine the separation and loss experienced by families divided by schemes like the Kindertransport. This display features original Red Cross telegrams which demonstrate the difficulty faced by those living abroad in attempting to communicate with their families whilst dealing with restrictive word counts, long delivery times and censors.
Visit our Reading Room to see the displays: http://bit.ly/2n3aNeY
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This September our Education and Outreach Manager Dr Barbara Warnock will be teaching an online course as part of the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education on the refugee crisis of the 1930s and 1940s.
Supported by the AJR - The Association of Jewish Refugees, this course will be taught at first year undergraduate level and will be suitable for teachers who wish to gain further knowledge for their own Holocaust teaching; for sixth form students who wish to boost their studies or CVs before going on to further education; and for anyone with an interest in the subject.
For more information and details on how to apply please visit http://bit.ly/2AvkYSL

2017 was a busy year for The Wiener Library as we worked harder than ever before to collect, preserve, and share collections relating to the Holocaust and other genocides.
Find out more about what we got up to in our latest Annual Review - now available on our website: http://bit.ly/2NYIKJ2

New to our blog - 'Jewish Doctors at Auschwitz and in the Lodz Ghetto: Deficiency, Disease and Death' by volunteer blogger Young Sam Winter.
"Both doctors had a strong sense of duty that gave them the resilience to continue to do their grim work day after day. Perl encapsulates this when she proclaimed to a terrified crowd of prisoners 'I am your doctor…. I’ll stay with you, always, to take care of you, to protect you'."
Read full blog: http://bit.ly/2vrnJii

Drancy’s name is now synonymous with the internment and deportation of Jews in France. The U-shaped concrete complex used was however, paradoxically conceived as a model city, named the Cité de la Muette. In this talk by Stephanie Hesz-Wood, the social, cultural and human implication of this conflicted, multi-dimensional site will be examined.

The latest contribution to the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI) Document Blog is written by Katja Grosse-Sommer who graduated from the University of Amsterdam / Universiteit van Amsterdam with a master’s thesis focused on unpublished diaries of Jews in hiding in the Netherlands during WWII.
Her blog post looks at the wartime diary of Fientje Weyel-Aleng and Jaap Weyel, a young couple from Amsterdam forced into hiding in September 1942 who chronicled the 933 ...days in hiding spanning around 870 pages. Post-war, they donated the diary to the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam, where it has been digitalized and recently made available online.
Looking at the diary, the post focuses on one of the many unique hiding experiences of Dutch Jews during World War II, the post-Holocaust use of wartime documents such as diaries, and the collection practices as well as contemporary digitalization projects of research institutes such as NIOD.
Read full blog: http://bit.ly/2LSjLcW
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New post on our website by Project Archivist Torsten Jugl about our new cataloguing project to make available the archive of the Leo Baeck Lodge in London which the Library took hold of in summer 2016.
"When the B’nai B’rith Leo Baeck (London) Lodge ceased its activities in 2017, a chapter of 74 years of dedicated service for the Jewish community ultimately ended. Established by German speaking refugees from central Europe at the peak of World War II the association quickly blended into British society and became a valuable member of the Anglo-Jewry community. In order to preserve and share its unique history, the Lodge archive is now being catalogued by The Wiener Library..."
Learn more: http://bit.ly/2NUySQn

New to our blog - volunteer Hajira Liaquat on the removal of a controversial wax figure of Hitler from an Indonesian tourist attraction.
"A wax figure of Hitler in front of a photograph of the gates to Auschwitz has been removed after three years of being on display at the De Mata Trick Eye Museum in Indonesia, following protests from human rights groups and Jewish activists... According to the Marketing Officer of the museum, no visitors had ever filed a complaint against the statue and instead thought of the figure as ‘fun’."
Read full blog: http://bit.ly/2NCYjGJ

Advance warning that between 20-24 August the Reading Room will be closed for our annual stock check. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.
The exhibition space will remain open as usual.

Visited our "London 1938: Defending 'Degenerate' German Art" exhibition and want to learn more about art the Nazis deemed 'degenerate'? Bilingual (German-English) exhibition catalogues are now available to purchase at reception!

New to our blog - volunteer Terry Philpot reviews 'Conscience Before Conformity' by Paul Shrimpton.
"The White Rose group and the July conspirators are the two best known German opponents of Nazism. Yet while in Germany the group’s members have hundreds of streets, squares and other places named after them, elsewhere few will have heard of them.
Despite books and a 2005 Oscar-nominated film, in Conscience Before Conformity, Paul Shrimpton attempts to fill this unaccountable g...ap."
Read full blog: http://bit.ly/2mE3xFY
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The Wiener Library is a vast resource that stands in the way of all who would deny the Holocaust happened. Conveniently situated on Russell Square in London it houses a wide selection of books, photographs, letters and other documents. I spent a very productive afternoon there. I found the staff welcoming and helpful. In addition to browsing the books, I was able to search their database and have my choice of documents brought up from the basement. I was pleased to find a file of letters and reports that greatly assisted me with my latest book project, Life After Belsen, the story of the Jewish humanitarian, Simon Bloomberg who was a leader at the DP Camp. The Wiener Library may not be on London rooftop bus tour but it ought to be!

This is one of London's hidden gems...a major resource for anyone interested in academic research...But equally important, it's for the ordinary person who wants to become more informed.The 1pm Tuesday guided tour was excellent.