Purpose

We communicate the memory of the Holocaust for a contemporary purpose: to cultivate ‘Upstanders’ against hate and persecution.  

Our purpose is urgent because, whilst time is running out to capture Holocaust survivors’ testimony, hate is on the rise. This profound social problem needs bold, imaginative solutions. As such we create learning experiences which are innovative in their design and distribution, to make the Holocaust relevant for today’s and future generations.

We have a three-part approach to maximise our impact: 

1. Witness: collect Holocaust testimony and artefacts, as the UK’s only accredited Holocaust museum.
2. Create: world-class curatorial and academic expertise, brought to life with innovative exhibitions, storytelling and digital technologies that truly involve the audience.
3. Distribute: make these learning experiences accessible in the widest range of places and formats, to continually reach new audiences and provoke attitudinal change across all our communities.

The more Upstanders we cultivate, the closer we will get to becoming an open-minded society where difference is valued. It is where difference is feared that hatred and persecution arises. The Holocaust remains the ultimate example of where hatred and persecution can lead.

Our definition of the Holocaust 
The Holocaust was the attempt by the Nazi regime and its collaborators to murder all of European Jewry during the Second World War. This genocidal policy can be seen to have evolved during the war as the Nazi regime gained more territory, and as more Jewish people came under their control. It culminated in the so called ‘Final Solution’, the murder of six million Jewish men, women and children.

The Nazi regime had created policy and legislature to ostracise German Jews and those Jews living in other states occupied by the Nazi regime prior to the Second World War. They also instigated the events of the November Pogrom (‘Kristallnacht’) in 1938.

The Nazi regime also carried out genocidal policies towards those with mental and physical disabilities, Polish and Slav peoples as well as the Roma and Sinti people of Europe. They additionally persecuted groups including gay men, Jehovah’s Witnesses, those seen as political dissidents and Soviet prisoners of war.

Definition agreed by Board of Trustees, September 2013