The Wiener Holocaust Library

On sale now...

Our latest publication accompanies our current exhibition, N**i Slave Labour: Perpetrators & Victims, and provides additional insights into some of the remarkable items from our collection which are on display

Visit our onsite bookshop or order your copy online https://buff.ly/iyGERZ3

In 2023, Lord Eric Pickles convened the Lord Pickles Alderney Expert Review to calculate the number of forced labourers who came to Alderney and the number who died there during the German occupation.

Coordinated by Gilly Carr, a team of thirteen academics calculated that just under 8,000 people passed through Alderney during the course of the war. 400 of them were from the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey.

Join us on 16th June for a special exhibition event, in which Professor Gilly Carr will explore the story of forced labourers in Alderney.

Sign up in the comments ⬇️

Zdeněk Tmej was a young photographer from Prague who was forcibly conscripted to work on railways in Breslau, Germany, in a group with other young Czech men in 1942. He documented the everyday lives of 100 Czech labourers with his camera.

The labourers lived in a makeshift campsite in an empty ballroom and worked in shifts around the clock. When the German guards caught him taking photographs, Tmej told them he was simply making souvenirs for himself and other labourers.

These photographs are a unique testament of the everyday lives of forced civilian labourers.

This photo is the only one Tmej took of labourers at work, as it was strictly forbidden to photograph any of the N**is' rail projects.

Our latest exhibition uncovers the tangled history of the N**is’ brutal slave labour programme through photographs, eyewitness testimony, and other unique documents from our archive.

N**i Slave Labour: Perpetrators & Victims is open in our exhibition gallery Monday - Friday, 10am - 5pm.

📸 Zdeněk Tmej, Czech labourers at work on rail tracks in Breslau, c. 1942, courtesy of Zdeněk Tmej / © Archiv B&M Chochola

Every Tuesday we lead a behind the scenes tour of our archive!

If you've never seen our stores, including some of the unique photos and documents within them, join us this Tuesday at 2pm...

Sign up here:

Free Tour - Wiener Holocaust Library and Archive (Tuesdays) Explore our archive and collections!

Every Tuesday afternoon you can visit the world’s Holocaust archives for an in-depth view of our historic collections and to see first-hand how we collect and preserve valuable material for future generations.

Join us from 2-3pm to join a free tour of the Library with our well-informed volunteer tour guides to learn about our history and our work going forward.

The tours last approximately one hour, encompassing the Library’s main archive space where you’ll have the opportunity to view fascinating and rare historical documents from the Holocaust, while also being able to take a look around the Wolfson Reading Room.

There's no need to book, just turn up and we'll be delighted to welcome you!

🏛️Book Talk – Through the Eyes of Jewish Child Survivors from Poland, Joanna Michlic in conversation with Zoë Waxman
📅 9 June, 6:30 - 8:00pm

Joanna Michlic's latest book offers an intimate social history of Jewish childhood during and after the Holocaust.

Centered on children from German-occupied Poland but informed by experiences across N**i-occupied Europe, the book highlights the child’s own perspective to illuminate rescue, survival, and relationships with adults under the N**i occupation.

Join us next month to hear the author in conversation with Zoe Waxman.

Free tickets:

404 Not Found

A series of evening events throughout the run of our latest exhibition will see experts on the subject from around the world offer their perspective on aspects of the display.

The first event is on 16th June with Prof Gilly Carr, who will discuss slave labour during the N**i occupation of the Channel Islands.

Find out more and sign up for free tickets:

429 Too Many Requests

What was it that made people risk their own lives to save Jews who were being persecuted by the N**is in the context of the complicity of those around them?

For the 6th Annual Alfred Wiener Holocaust Memorial Lecture, Professor Mary Fulbrook spoke about the communities and groups who refused to look the other way during the Holocaust, and the significance of surrounding societies for the survival of Jews.

Find out more and catch up on the full event now:

404 Not Found

"The N**is’ complex wartime economic system and its huge reliance on forced and slave labour has not always received attention in wider remembrance and commemoration.

This important exhibition is the first ever in Britain that focuses solely on the use of slave and forced labour, its role in the N**i war economy and its significance in the Holocaust and the N**i camp system."

Find out more about our latest exhibition, and the exceptional launch event we hosted last week, via The Jewish News

Wiener Library launches Britain’s first exhibition on N**i camp slave labour Survivor Eva Clarke and writer Jonathan Freedland highlight individual stories from brutal slave labour system