Dilemmas, Choices, Responses: Britain and the Holocaust

The Wiener Library exhibition Dilemmas, Choices, Responses: Britain and the Holocaust considers British responses to the Holocaust and the Nazis' antisemitic persecution. As the Nazi Party's grip on power in Germany strengthened through the 1930s, the persecution of Jews intensified. The Nazi takeover of Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939 threatened the Jewish communities in these countries. In the midst of the Second World War, and particularly after the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, mass killings of Jews began. By 1942, a plan for the systematic annihilation of the Jews of Europe was in place.

Whilst Britain's role in fighting the Nazis during the Second World War is well known, its response to the Holocaust is less familiar. The British government was aware of the mass murder of the Jews, and the matter was discussed in Parliament as well as in the press.

The exhibition was a collaborative project between The Wiener Library and the Regional Ambassadors of the Holocaust Educational Trust (HET).

This is a description of an Online Resource. Online Resources are websites that describe, interpret and provide access to archives. They often provide access to digital content but they may also describe physical materials. They usually cover a theme or topic, such as an individual, a movement, or an important historical event.

This description was created by the Archives Hub team on behalf of the Wiener Library in June 2018.

Access this resource online: https://www.wienerlibrary.co.uk/britain-and-the-holocaust.

Find out more about the rest of the Wiener Library's collections relating to the Holocaust, its causes and legacies, and how to access them, here: www.wienerlibrary.co.uk/Collections.

You can also browse all of the Wiener Library's descriptions on the Archives Hub here: archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/data/GB-1556.

This exhibition will be of interest to those studying and teaching the history of the Holocaust and the Nazi era in Europe, especially those interested in responses in Britain to the Holocaust and the persecution of the Jews.

Digital images of archival material are accompanied by text offering historical context and discussion of the issues raised by the exhibits.