The Holocaust (IWM)

During the Second World War, the Nazis and their collaborators murdered two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population – six million people. In some parts of Europe this represented the complete annihilation of entire households, families, and communities. Those that survived were forced to live their lives in the shadow of an incalculable loss. They, and the generations that followed, have each had to confront the aftermath of this destruction in their own way.

Based on IWM’s ground-breaking new Second World War and Holocaust Galleries, this publication examines the development of the Holocaust as it appeared to those who witnessed it. It includes the items that they used, cherished and – in some cases – hid, to ensure that their experiences are meaningfully remembered. By telling the story of the Holocaust through objects and their owners, the book highlights the devastating human cost of the genocide and helps readers to understand one of the darkest periods in modern history.

Paperback | 208 Pages

James Bulgin has led the curation of IWM’s new The Holocaust Galleries. By robustly interrogating the identity of the perpetrators, the galleries will explain who was responsible for these crimes, what motivated them and how ordinary they often were in every other way.