The Wiener Holocaust Library

📆 Save the date! The Big Give Christmas Challenge fundraising campaign goes live on the 3 December. This year we’re raising money to support the crucial work of our Family Research Service. We hold the UK’s only copy of the International Tracing Service Archive: 30m pages of Holocaust-era records, used for research into survivors and victim families. We never charge for this work and need your support to help families learn, often for the first time, the fate of lost loved ones. By donating during the Big Give you will support us to help as many families as possible uncover their relatives’ fate. To be reminded when the campaign goes live, email fundraising@wienerholocaustlibrary.org with the subject 'Big Give Save the Date'. Find out more: https://lnkd.in/evB89zUn

Really pleased to receive the latest edition of 'Social History in Museums', journal of the Social History Curators Group. This includes an article I've written based on my own experience of working with potentially traumatic and traumatising family histories at the The Wiener Holocaust Library, hoping to provide practical advice to heritage professionals dealing with similar topics. And it's always nice to see something you've written in hardcopy! Thanks to Henry Roberts at Social History Curators Group for being a lovely editor!

This month we welcomed this year's cohort of Holocaust Studies MA students at Royal Holloway's Holocaust Research Institute, made possible by the partnership between the Library and the department - the Holocaust and Genocide Research Partnership (HGRP). HGRP is the UK’s foremost research body into the history of the Holocaust and genocide, and is our flagship research initiative aiming to bridge the gap between new research and public engagement. Our mission is to re–frame public engagement, education, and heritage practice about the history and memory of the Holocaust and genocide. Find out more: https://lnkd.in/gEiyi_ms

📢 Last chance to sign up! Join us next week as exhibition curators Barbara Warnock and Helen Lewandowski explore the genesis and development of the Fred Kormis: Sculpting the Twentieth Century exhibition, from the deposit of the Fred Kormis Collection at the Wiener Library shortly after Kormis’ death in 1986, to its rediscovery by Library staff in recent years, and the process of the curation of the exhibition. They will discuss the collection and the themes explored in the exhibition, with the chance for guests to have a private view of the exhibition. Sign up for your place now: https://lnkd.in/e3kvyRjN

📽 Watch now! The full recording of our recent Ernst Fraenkel Prize-winning lecture is now available on YouTube. Historicizing the much-championed ideal of zero waste, Anne Berg's new work shows that the management of waste was central to the politics of war and to the genesis of genocide in the Nazi Germany. The Fraenkel Prize judges found it to be “a brilliant, ambitious and highly original work which will make a great impact on the field.” https://lnkd.in/egR8ztbt

We're delighted to announce that the Fifth Annual Alfred Wiener Holocaust Memorial Lecture will be delivered this year by the esteemed Professor Debórah Dwork. Her lecture will unearth the hidden history of Americans who risked their lives to save others during the Nazi era. These intrepid people travelled the globe to aid victims of Nazi Germany and its allies, often staying to rescue as many as possible when the victims’ peril turned lethal. Join us at Gresham College on 20 November to discover the stories of these individuals, particularly women who embraced the independence and transformative impact of their relief efforts. Sign up now: https://lnkd.in/eYN-G9mc

📢 New Call for Papers! The 8th Beyond Camps & Forced Labour Conference, taking place in January 2026, is now accepting applications. Beyond Camps & Forced Labour is a multi-disciplinary conference organised by: Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, University of London; Imperial War Museums; Holocaust Research Institute, Royal Holloway, University of London; The Wiener Holocaust Library, London; University of Wolverhampton; the Fortunoff Video Archive; Wiener Wiesenthal Institute; the Leo Baeck Institute London; and the Center for Holocaust Studies at the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History. The aim is to bring together scholars from a variety of disciplines who are engaged in research on all groups of survivors of Nazi persecution. These will include – but are not limited to – Jews, Roma and Sinti, Slavonic peoples, Jehovah’s Witnesses, LGBTQIA+, Soviet prisoners of war, political dissidents, members of underground movements, people with disabilities, the so-called ‘racially impure’, and forced labourers. The Eighth international multidisciplinary conference is to be held at Birkbeck, University of London, and The Wiener Holocaust Library, London from 7-9 January 2026. Find out more; https://lnkd.in/e9f6phkG

📢 New Call for Papers! The 8th Beyond Camps & Forced Labour Conference, taking place in January 2026, is now accepting applications. Beyond Camps & Forced Labour is a multi-disciplinary conference organised by: Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, University of London; Imperial War Museums; Holocaust Research Institute, Royal Holloway, University of London; The Wiener Holocaust Library, London; University of Wolverhampton; the Fortunoff Video Archive; Wiener Wiesenthal Institute; the Leo Baeck Institute London; and the Center for Holocaust Studies at the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History. The aim is to bring together scholars from a variety of disciplines who are engaged in research on all groups of survivors of Nazi persecution. These will include – but are not limited to – Jews, Roma and Sinti, Slavonic peoples, Jehovah’s Witnesses, LGBTQIA+, Soviet prisoners of war, political dissidents, members of underground movements, people with disabilities, the so-called ‘racially impure’, and forced labourers. The Eighth international multidisciplinary conference is to be held at Birkbeck, University of London, and The Wiener Holocaust Library, London from 7-9 January 2026. Find out more; https://lnkd.in/e9f6phkG

We're delighted to announce that the Fifth Annual Alfred Wiener Holocaust Memorial Lecture will be delivered this year by the esteemed Professor Debórah Dwork. Her lecture will unearth the hidden history of Americans who risked their lives to save others during the Nazi era. These intrepid people travelled the globe to aid victims of Nazi Germany and its allies, often staying to rescue as many as possible when the victims’ peril turned lethal. Join us at Gresham College on 20 November to discover the stories of these individuals, particularly women who embraced the independence and transformative impact of their relief efforts. Sign up now: https://lnkd.in/eYN-G9mc

📽 Watch now! The full recording of our recent Ernst Fraenkel Prize-winning lecture is now available on YouTube. Historicizing the much-championed ideal of zero waste, Anne Berg's new work shows that the management of waste was central to the politics of war and to the genesis of genocide in the Nazi Germany. The Fraenkel Prize judges found it to be “a brilliant, ambitious and highly original work which will make a great impact on the field.” https://lnkd.in/egR8ztbt