Credit: The Wiener Library
library
Barbara Weiss Architects, 2011
29 Russell Square, WC1B 5DP
The Wiener Holocaust Library is one of the world’s leading and most extensive archives on the Holocaust. From 1939 to 1945, 20 million individuals were exploited as slave and forced labourers by the Nazi regime. Our latest exhibition 'Nazi Slave Labour: Perpetrators and Victims' explores how perpetrators profited off and exploited slave labourers, alongside the first-hand stories of the victims.
Russell Square, Goodge Street, Euston, Tottenham Court Road, Warren Street
Euston, King's Cross
59, 68, 168, 188
The environment will be a quiet exhibition space and Reading Room. The Tours will be in the Archive in the basement which is a small space.
Credit: The Wiener Library
10:00–17:00
Visit our exhibition space, where members of staff will be on hand to answer questions about the Library and our current exhibition.
10:00–17:00
Visit the Wolfson Reading Room to browse some of our holdings and chat with staff to learn how we can support you in your research.
Guided tour
11:00–12:00
How to book
Bookings will open at midday on 19 August. You won't be able to book a ticket before then.
Guided tour
12:30–13:30
How to book
Bookings will open at midday on 19 August. You won't be able to book a ticket before then.
Guided tour
14:00–15:00
How to book
Bookings will open at midday on 19 August. You won't be able to book a ticket before then.
Guided tour
15:30–16:30
How to book
Bookings will open at midday on 19 August. You won't be able to book a ticket before then.
Founded in 1933 by Dr. Alfred Wiener, the Wiener Holocaust Library is the world’s oldest Holocaust memorial institution. It was initially set up to collect and disseminate information about events happening in Nazi Germany.
Having moved to London in 1939, Dr Wiener’s collection proved invaluable, first to the British government and later, after the War, to the UN War crimes commission. Now a forum for research and scholarly debate, the Library is also known for gathering and compiling thousands of eyewitness accounts.
The Library’s current holdings number approximately 65,000 books and pamphlets, as well as periodicals, unpublished memoirs, photographs, press cuttings, and rare material obtained from all over the world.
In 2010 the Library acquired from Birkbeck, University of London, a 99-year lease on a substantial but dilapidated listed Georgian building, located at 29 Russell Square, in the heart of Bloomsbury. This was carefully refurbished and converted by Barbara Weiss Architects, to accommodate the collection in elegant, accessible, and climate controlled conditions – part of a £5m project intended to prepare the Library to play a more prominent role in British and international academic life.
The move was very much seen by the Library as the foundation for ensuring the appropriate conditions for its future work in scholarship, public policy and education relating to the study of the Holocaust, antisemitism and comparative genocide.
Between 1939 and 1945, 20 million individuals were exploited as slave and forced labourers by the Nazi regime. Our current exhibition, 'Nazi Slave Labour: Perpetrators and Victims', explores how perpetrators profited off and exploited slave labourers, alongside the first-hand stories of the victims.
Architect: Barbara Weiss Architects Ltd
Project manager and QS: Cluttons LLP
Structural Engineer: Bartons Engineers Ltd
Services Engineer: Peter Deer and Associates
Main Contractor: BW Interiors Ltd
For more info on this building visit AJ Buildings Library http://www.ajbuildingslibrary.co.uk/projects/display/id/4945
Drop in / Guided tour
community/cultural, library, museum, art in the public realm, concert/performance space, education
Grade II-listed Georgian domestic building c.1760, formerly part of the Bedford Estate. Interior refurbished 1925 to form lecture hall (restored 2014), library, bookshop and offices. Oak woodwork and green Doulton tiles line the staircase.
Unknown, 1760
