Dear Friend,

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

We are delighted that the Library is now open Tuesday - Friday, 10am - 5pm. Visitors will no longer need to pre-book to visit the Reading Room or exhibitions. Please see below for further details.

In this edition of the Library's newsletter we are delighted to announce that our new exhibition, This Fascist Life: Radical Right Movements in Interwar Europe, opens this week; booking is now open for our new educational programme; a new opportunity to work with us; an invitation to the second annual Alfred Wiener Holocaust Memorial Lecture; catch up on virtual talks and register for upcoming events.

Kind regards,

The Wiener Holocaust Library

6 October 2021 - 4 February 2022

Senior Curator, Dr Barbara Warnock, installing the Library's new exhibition.

As extreme right-wing radicalism grows in strength in Europe and elsewhere, this timely exhibition looks back to the first manifestations of the destructive phenomenon of fascism.

Drawing upon the Library’s unique archival collections, first assembled in the 1930s by Dr Alfred Wiener as part of his fight against fascism, as well as the expertise of an international group of experts in interwar fascism, this exhibition focuses on the experiences of rank-and-file members of fascist movements in the interwar period. It explores the world of the young and socially diverse fascist activists and examines their motivations and activities.

• Exhibition Launch: This Fascist Life: Radical Right Movements in Interwar Europe, Wednesday 6 October, 6-8pm
• Exhibition Talk: A Fascist Insurrection in Paris – 6 February 1934, Dr Chris Millington, Thursday 28 October, 6.30-7.30pm
• Virtual Exhibition Talk: “The Mussolini of the North”: A Transnational look at Finnish Interwar Fascism, Marja Jalava, Wednesday 3 November, 6.30-7.30pm

Abstracts are invited for twenty-minute papers for this conference exploring the position of the radical right around the world today. Although fascism was defeated militarily at the end of the Second World War, neo-fascist and radical right movements have continued to spread racial hatred and to challenge liberal democracies ever since. The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have seen right-wing political parties, white supremacist scenes, extremist organisations, and governments promoting ultranationalist chauvinism in various forms. By interrogating the frames, repertoires, mobilisation strategies, and activities of the radical right, this conference seeks to understand how the radical right functions in today’s world so that we might be better equipped to combat it in the future.

Please submit abstracts of 200-300 words and a very brief CV (2 pages) to Barbara Warnock bwarnock@wienerholocaustlibrary.org by Friday 29 October 2021. 

In this lecture, Professor Jan Grabowski will discuss how scholars of the Holocaust find themselves confronted with the hostile reactions of various states pursuing the policies of Holocaust distortion. The situation has acquired particular importance and urgency in Poland, where the authorities have introduced a series of measures intended to freeze academic debate, hinder independent research and intimidate scholars whose writings are perceived as opposed to the official, state-approved historical narrative.

We are delighted to announce that the Library’s new free educational series for the 2021 Autumn Term is now open for booking.

Run by the Library’s experienced education team and guided by the British curriculum, the programme of talks and workshops are aimed at teachers and students of the Holocaust wishing to deepen their understanding of the Holocaust through engagement with the Library’s unique and historic archive.

The series will help participants to critically consider each topic and explore the variety of ways in which it can be approached in an educational setting.

Details of upcoming events are outlined below.

We are pleased to announce the publication of a new educational resource exploring the Nazi rise to power on The Holocaust Explained. 

The resource, which has been designed for teachers to use with their students, includes downloadable primary sources from the Library’s unique archive, a worksheet, suggested activities, contextual information, and a glossary to help students to explore the various factors involved in the Nazi Party's rise to power.

A Nazi Party election poster, produced in the early 1930s, using the slogan Arbeit und Brot (Eng: work and bread). Wiener Holocaust Library Collections.

The Library is pleased to share this newly created video exploring the history of Roma, produced in collaboration with Professor Becky Taylor at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and Tani Gessi from the Roma Support Group.

This visual resource was created to give school students an overview of the history of Roma communities, from their migration from India through to the early 1930s, deepening their knowledge of the group.

The video is the first publication in a larger scheme of educational activities on Roma history and the Roma Genocide that the Library is currently in the process of curating. In addition to the video, this scheme will include lesson resources and a workshop series.

Community Engagement Coordinator

Part-time, Three-year (36 months) fixed term with possible remote working
Salary: £15 per hour or £27,300 p.a. pro-rata; 2 days per week
Closing date for applications: 8 October 2021; Interviews to be held 11 or 12 October 2021 via Zoom.

The Library is embarking on an ambitious plan to enhance its research support using the digital ITS archive. We are expanding our ITS archive research team to refine and improve the core functions of our family and academic research support and to expand accessibility through a national outreach programme designed to reach new audiences and raise awareness of the archive across the UK. This three-year programme, Recovery and Repair: Supporting Jewish Family Histories of the Holocaust throughout Britain, launched at the beginning of September 2021. The Library is recruiting a part-time Community Engagement Coordinator to support the Library’s ambitious plans for enhancing its research support offering based on using the UK’s copy of the digital ITS archive.

The Recovery and Repair project will target locations with sizable Jewish communities and sites of Jewish heritage with a bespoke programme of family research and personal document collections preservation support: skills workshops for local archivists and community leaders, consultations for family researchers, as well as lectures and exhibition-based outreach for the wider public. 

Dr Lucy Wasensteiner, Director of Liebermann Villa and curator of their exhibition, presents the exhibition to Ambassador Michaela Küchler of the German Foreign Ministry, and the Library’s Dr Toby Simpson.

On 17 September, the Library’s Director, Dr Toby Simpson, and Senior Curator, Dr Barbara Warnock, visited the current exhibition at Villa Liebermann in Wannsee near Berlin, Gerty Simon: Berlin/ London – A Photographer in Exile.

The exhibition at Liebermann Villa.

Dr Toby Simpson, Director of The Wiener Holocaust Library:

“My favourite moment from our visit was seeing the original Gerty Simon prints from our collection on display. Standing in the city where Gerty first made her name as a photographer, I was reminded of how far these portraits had travelled, how long they had to wait to be properly appreciated, and how easily they could have been lost forever.”

This important resource enhances our understanding of everyday life in Nazi Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe, and of post-war reflections on responsibility, complicity, and justice, of ‘ordinary’ people who were implicated in, witnesses to, or on the periphery of war and genocide. The collection includes accounts by former members of the Waffen-SS, SS, and Wehrmacht, secretaries in National Socialist and military organisations, alongside farm workers and homemakers.

British documentary filmmaker Luke Holland, who passed away on 10 June 2020, spent nearly a decade between 2008 and 2017 to conduct some 500 hours of interviews in multiple locations with more than 250 elderly people, including men and women from Germany, Austria, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium. His feature-length documentary film ‘Final Account’ premiered in 2020.

Speakers at the launch event will include Sam Pope (ZEF Productions), Professor Mary Fulbrook (UCL), Dr Stefanie Rauch (UCL), Mileva Stupar (Institute National de l’Audiovisuel), and Dr Toby Simpson (The Wiener Holocaust Library).

The archival project was initiated and directed by Luke Holland (ZEF Productions), in association with the Institute National de l’Audiovisuel (INA), UCL, and The Wiener Holocaust Library, and Founding Partners, Pears Foundation.

Researchers will be able to access the collection at the Institute National de l’Audiovisuel, the Library, and UCL from autumn 2021.

Join us on Thursday 21 October, 6.30pm for a virtual joint event with the Second Generation Network and the Library.

H.E. Michael Zimmermann, The Austrian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, will open the event before Dr Barbara Warnock of The Wiener Holocaust Library gives an outline of the The Holocaust in Austria. Main speaker Frau Hannah Lessing, Secretary General of the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism and founding member of the Shoah Walls of Names Memorial Association, will talk about the new Holocaust Memorial in Vienna, describe the official opening ceremony on 9 November 2021.

Frau Lessing will also explain how members can participate in the November 9th ceremony.

There will be an opportunity for Q & A following the presentations.

Professor Judy Baumel-Schwarz of Bar Ilan University in Israel will share her latest research findings with us. Network Members who completed her questionnaires will recall Judy was investigating 2g and 3g researchers to see whether there was a link, conscious or otherwise, between their Holocaust background and their having chosen a research profession (not necessarily connected with the Holocaust), whether in the academic world, law, medicine, or other forms of research.

Some 2g and 3g grew up in homes where the Holocaust was discussed openly while in others it was a silent but constant accompaniment by its very absence. In some cases, the connection between a Holocaust-related background and personal/professional decisions is overt and obvious. In others it is more subtle, some initially stated that there is no connection at all.

Judy discovered rumination and self-exploration often uncover possible connections between our choices and our background and their significance is dependent upon a subjective understanding of one's past and present.

Judy's talk will center upon the dynamics of the research project, and its initial conclusions. Attendees can share their own thoughts and experiences during the Q + A that will follow the talk.

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.