The Library
... if we must die
To the Library for the opening of an exhibition, 'Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust'. Always, in my family, -The- Library.
The Wiener Holocaust Library, established by my grandfather, Alfred Wiener, is now in Russell Square, in an elegant white fronted Georgian house, close to the Senate House of the University of London. Whenever I visit, proud as I am of this beautiful building, I emotionally connect to an earlier location, not far, on Devonshire Street. Crowded with books and papers, scented with dust and wood polish, occupied by scholars and refugees, supported by the dedicated librarians. A place that speaks of pain but is also full of light, and gentle humour.
The library has a compelling mission: to witness the Holocaust, Nazism and genocide through books, papers, archival material and personal accounts. To stand for, perhaps better, to show, the truth through evidence. Powerfully through the testimony of eyewitnesses, most powerfully through the direct words of perpetrators.
The exhibition speaks of defiance through armed opposition, rescue and movingly through cultural resistance. It speaks also of the small resistances that witness entails, my Aunt Ruth's diary (https://bit.ly/3C2xKTQ) is on display. The exhibition is also a reminder of the power of scholarship in sustaining the library and interpreting the materials it contains, this too is a form of resistance.
Thank you for sharing this! It touches me in multiple ways through my family and history. Looking in the face of our collective past as mixed and diverse society, institution, even family - unflinchingly - helps us grow up as individuals and make better decisions for the future. The challenges with past collective trauma motivates me to design curricula for our students that go beyond the cerebral and involve deeper tissues of learning and being human.
I'm mentioning this also because Michael comments below - when Michael and I met in Switzerland almost 20y ago I couldn't have imagined that we would share one of these teaching and learning adventures that would take our MBA students to the Holy Land every year and where Michael's insights are crucial every time for students to appreciate the culture.
Thank you for that. As the son of refugees from Germany, who reached England in their late teens, their education and disrupted, a father who lost his parents and much of his family in the Holocaust and a mother who likewise lost much and many and who reached the UK thanks to the Kindertransport, I grew up in London always conscious of being part of a very small family but for much of my early years not fully understanding why.
The Wiener Library does wonderful work and it’s amazing to think of the link between remembrance and preservation of the past, and the present and future embodied in City and in your own spanning both institutions as it were, without neglecting one in favour of the other.
One clearly needs both a foot in the present and future, and one in the past, to be a well-rounded and ethical human being.