Dear Friend,

Welcome to The Wiener Holocaust Library's e-newsletter for August 2021.

We are delighted that the Library is now open Tuesday - Friday, 10am - 5pm, for those who have pre-booked. Please see below for further details and information on pre-booking.

In this edition of the Library's newsletter, we publish a joint statement with René Cassin to mark Roma and Sinti Genocide Memorial Day (2 August); last chance to book and visit our Death Marches exhibition; Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust is back for a limited September run; upcoming temporary exhibition on the legacies of eugenics; read our latest blogs; catch up on virtual talks and register for upcoming events.

Kind regards,

The Wiener Holocaust Library

It was on this day, 2 August 1944, that 2,897 Roma and Sinti were massacred in the Auschwitz gas chambers, and it is on this same today in 2021 that we stand together and refuse to forget the past, as we refuse to ignore the demands of the present. As laws which marginalise Gypsies and Travellers and stigmatise migrants and asylum seekers make their way through the UK Parliament, we refuse to forget what can arise from the stoking of hatred, fear, and division.

In response to these horrors was born the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which aimed to guarantee safety for those on the margins and to ensure a life founded on principles of fairness and equality. It is our responsibility to continue to safeguard these values today in protecting the rights of Romani, Gypsies, Travellers, and refugees.

As organisations that remember Jews who were dispossessed of citizenship, denied access to work and education and targeted by centuries of race discrimination, we refuse to forget. As believers in social justice and bearers of the legacy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we refuse to forget. As human beings, worthy of dignity, love, tolerance, and respect, we refuse to forget.

Today we stand together with our Romani, Gypsy, and Traveller friends. As one we mourn their loss and hope for a reality which dignifies us all.

This blog examines the case of Karl Franz, a German Sinto man who likely died on a death march in the last days of the Second World War.

Karl Franz’s case illuminates intersections between the history of Jewish and Roma persecution and the ways in which that persecution is documented in archives. Researched and written by Death Marches: Evidence and Memory co-curators Dr Christine Schmidt and Professor Dan Stone.

Among the bodies recovered from a grave in Neunburg vorm Wald was that of Karl Franz, who was deported to Auschwitz and then to Buchenwald as a "work shy Gypsy". His daughter wrote to the International Tracing Service in 1959 to enquire if her father might still be alive but correspondence suggests that due to anti-Roma prejudice she was never told about her father's body being likely identified.

In this short video (above), Professor Dan Stone talks about the exhumation report that describes a wallet found on the body believed to be that of Karl Franz, which held photographs of his wife and children.

The Library's current exhibition, which uncovers how forensic and other evidence about the death marches has been gathered since the end of the Holocaust, closes on Friday 27 August 2021. 

Make sure you book your slot to learn more about how researchers and others have attempted to recover the death march routes - and those who did not survive them. 

Please note our current COVID-19 opening times and health and safety measures, including wearing a face-covering, before visiting. Entry to the Library is only permitted to those who have pre-booked.

Due to popular demand, the Library’s Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust exhibition will be returning for a limited run from 1 to 17 September. We are pleased to be displaying this important exhibition for those who may have missed it due to the pandemic. For this limited run, there will be no pre-booking.

During the Holocaust, Jewish men and women resisted the Nazis and their collaborators whenever they had the opportunity, in dangerous and even impossible circumstances.

Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust draws upon the Library’s unique archival collections to tell the story of the Jewish men and women who, as the Holocaust unfolded around them and at great risk to themselves, resisted the Nazis and their collaborators.

Check out the video below for a sneak peek at some of the incredible stories we highlight.

To mark Gerty Simon's birthday this month and to celebrate the exhibition of her work now on display in Berlin, Senior Curator at The Wiener Holocaust Library, Dr Barbara Warnock, explores the personalities that the German-Jewish artist photographed in her London studio. 

In the autumn of 1933, Gerty Simon arrived in London as an exile from Berlin. She appears to have come to London equipped to re-establish her career rapidly: she travelled with press clippings about her previous shows and examples of her work. She set up a studio in London, and remarkably, within a year of her arrival, staged her first show of photographic portraits. 

In London, Simon’s subjects represented a remarkable cross-section of leading figures in Britain’s interconnected artistic, theatrical, political and social worlds. As in Berlin, Simon photographed at least as many women as men, and, in London, she also photographed other exiles from Nazi Germany, some of whom she had personal connections with, such as gallerist Alfred Flechtheim, who curated her second London show, and the actress Lotte Lenya.

Pictured below: Paul Nash, Aneurin Bevan, Constance Cummings and Lotte Lenya.

On show at The Wiener Holocaust Library for a limited run from 21 September - 30 September 2021.

Marking a century since the influential Second International Eugenics Congress was organised at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, this new exhibition explores the history and legacies of eugenics.

Neues Volk, 1 March 1936, p. 37. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.

A century later, we invite visitors to engage with the legacies of eugenics across time and space and to reflect on what eugenics means for us today. This remains a sensitive and emotional issue for many people, not least because for so long eugenics has reinforced discriminatory practices based on race, class, gender, disability and age.

In the current coronavirus pandemic crisis, we need to review how myriad assumptions and attitudes rooted in eugenics continue to affect our world in ways both obvious and hidden.

Join the Library to mark the exhibition launch of "We are not alone": Legacies of Eugenics on Tuesday 21 September at the Library.

The evening will feature words by exhibition curator Professor Marius Turda and further contributions from Professor Dan Stone (Royal Holloway) and Professor Joe Cain (UCL).

This will mark one of the first in-person events at the Library in 2021 and, as such, we will only be offering a limited number of tickets. Book now to avoid disappointment!

Becoming a member is a powerful way you can support us in working towards our wider mission. In return, you can enjoy our exclusive member benefits and know that you are playing a significant role in the future success of the Library.