About us
We advise government on taking forward the recommendations of the Prime Minister’s Holocaust Commission.
The UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation is an expert committee of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. We advise HM government on taking forward the recommendations of the Prime Minister’s Holocaust Commission, to deliver:
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a striking new National Memorial to the Holocaust to be established in a prominent central London location
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a world-class Learning Centre, co-located with the Memorial, using cutting edge technologies to enhance visitors’ learning
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an urgent programme to record and preserve the testimony of British Holocaust survivors and concentration camp liberators
Who we are
Our current members are:
- Rt Hon Lord Eric Pickles and Rt Hon Ed Balls (co-Chairs)
- Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis
- Natasha Kaplinsky OBE
- Gerald Ronson CBE
- Alice Greenwald
- The Rt Hon the Lord Feldman of Elstree
- Lord David Alliance
- Baroness Dido Harding
- Peter Freeman CBE
- Lloyd Dorfman CBE
- Sir Jon Cunliffe
- Professor Mona Siddiqui
- Matthew Westerman
Our mission statement
The United Kingdom Holocaust Memorial is the UK’s national establishment for remembrance of the Holocaust. It is dedicated to the 6 million Jewish men, women and children murdered in the Holocaust and all other victims of the Nazis and their collaborators.
The Memorial will stand as a reminder of the horrors of the past and will encourage reflection on their implications for British government and society, both at the time and subsequently. The view of Parliament from the Memorial will serve as a permanent reminder that political decisions have far-reaching consequences. By setting history’s worst example of the disintegration of democratic values against the greatest emblem of Britain’s aspirations for democracy, it will stand as a permanent reminder of the responsibilities of citizens in a democracy to be vigilant and responsive whenever and wherever those values are threatened.
We seek to preserve the memory of the Holocaust whilst also considering its contemporary relevance. The Holocaust – the murder of Europe’s Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators – remains unsurpassed as a historical event in its aims and extent, yet the questions it raises have many echoes in the modern world, including (but not restricted to) subsequent genocides and the persistence of antisemitism.
Deeper understanding of the Holocaust, and of Britain’s responses to it, therefore prompts us to ask challenging questions about human behaviour and the world around us. The UK Holocaust Memorial will thus aim both to remember and to encourage reflection on the lessons of the past amongst all British citizens and visitors of all nationalities. In dedicating itself to this mission, Britain reaffirms its commitment to stand up against antisemitism, prejudice and hatred in all its forms
How we will deepen understanding of the Holocaust and Britain’s response
We seek to combine a striking architectural monument with an engaging, reflective and powerful exhibition. This will be founded on academic research and judicious use of sources, combined with an experiential approach to immerse visitors in the historical content and provoke their critical thinking.
The display will confront the immense human calamity caused by the destruction of Europe’s Jewish communities during the Holocaust, arousing a sincere commitment to mourn, remember and act. Victims will be remembered as individuals, not nameless statistics.
The thematic exhibition will set the Holocaust within the British narrative: historically, politically and culturally. This narrative will be balanced, addressing the complexities of Britain’s ambiguous responses to the Holocaust, avoiding simplistic judgements and encouraging visitors to critically reflect on whether more could have been done, both by policymakers and by society as a whole.
We will work with other institutions across the UK supporting Holocaust commemoration and education. We will complement the permanent exhibition with online material, drawing on the same research and sources, making links to other relevant sites, and promoting a deeper understanding of the Holocaust among as wide an audience as possible.
Facing history honestly requires us to question the role of our own Parliament, government and society in the history of the Holocaust, and recurring genocides in its aftermath. The obligation to confront the contemporary rise of antisemitism will not be overlooked, in light of the recent rise of extremist views in Britain and many other countries.
Exhibition
The UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation’s Mission Statement commits to the creation of a thematic exhibition that will set the Holocaust within the British narrative: historically, politically and culturally. This narrative will be balanced, addressing the complexities of Britain’s ambiguous responses to the Holocaust, avoiding simplistic judgements and encouraging visitors to critically reflect on whether more could have been done, both by policymakers and by society as a whole.
It is commonly believed that little was known in the UK about the Holocaust before the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp by British troops in 1945. However, as the exhibition will show, knowledge of the persecution and murder of Europe’s Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators was extensive in the UK, and the question of how to respond to these events was widely and frequently debated at all levels of British society.
The exhibition will address these varied British responses thematically, from the perspective of the government and politicians as well as a wide range of communities and individuals. At the same time, it will show the impact of the Holocaust on the UK itself and how it affected localities across the country. In confronting this sensitive history, it will strive for honesty and balance, avoiding simplistic moral judgements and acknowledging the ambiguity and diversity of British responses to the Holocaust.
The exhibition will also place the Holocaust in its broader historical contexts. It will examine the wider programme of Nazi persecution and its impact on different victim groups. It will explore the long history of antisemitism from its historical roots to the present. And it will examine the relationship of the Holocaust to the emergence of the concept of genocide and attempts to stop and punish subsequent genocidal acts since 1945.
Commemoration and reflection are intended to form an integral part of the exhibition. Through the voices and images of victims, survivors, refugees and other witnesses, many with connections to Britain, it will evoke the loss of individuals, families, communities and cultures, encouraging visitors to reflect on the implications of the Holocaust for our world today.
The exhibition’s narrative is being developed under the curatorial lead of Yehudit Shendar, former Senior Art Curator and Deputy Director, Museums Division at Yad Vashem, together with project historian Martin Winstone, Senior Historical Advisor to the Holocaust Educational Trust; the UKHMF Academic Advisory Board; Members of the UKHMF Board; and international experts with extensive experience in developing and producing Holocaust-related exhibitions.
UKHMF Testimonies
In 2015, an independent, cross-party Commission found there was an urgent need to record some of the last remaining voices of British Holocaust survivors and liberators, while there was still an opportunity to do so. Between 2015 and 2016, the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation (UKHMF) took forward this recommendation and recorded 112 audio-visual interviews with 113 people.
The interviews recorded by UKHMF cover a wide range of experiences linked to Nazi persecution and the Holocaust, and include the perspectives of camp survivors, children in hiding, refugees who escaped to the United Kingdom and Kindertransport children. Many of these moving personal stories were recorded for the first time, with the collection also including the voices of British soldiers and medical staff involved in the liberation and relief of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Natasha Kaplinsky, broadcaster and member of the UKHMF Board, conducted all 112 interviews and in 2017 was recognised for her extraordinary voluntary contribution with an OBE for services to Holocaust Commemoration. Her work in interviewing survivors and liberators gave interviewees the chance to record their history in their own words and has preserved their voices to educate future generations about the lessons of the Holocaust.
It is a national duty and a moral imperative to record, preserve and share these testimonies, and the UKHMF intends that these be accessible to a wide range of audiences for generations to come. All 112 interviews will be preserved in the National Archives, Kew, where they will be made publicly available for the benefit of Holocaust research and education. The testimonies will also be made accessible via the future UK Holocaust Memorial and will add to the rich network of existing recorded testimony collections that support Holocaust remembrance and education in the United Kingdom.