UK Government to make Holocaust records open to public for first time

The Government is set to make all records related to the Holocaust open to the public for the first time.

Guernsey and Jersey Governments have also agreed to make their records on the Holocaust publicly available.

The announcement came yesterday, on Holocaust Memorial Day, and the move will provide the public with a far greater resource for research and study purposes. The records, which include 787 books in the St. Lambrecht collection, will be transferred to London’s Wiener Holocaust Library by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).

The Rt Hon Lord Pickles, Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for post-Holocaust issues, said: “I am grateful for the full and friendly cooperation of the governments of Guernsey and Jersey. I also thank the diligence of the FCDO staff for their recent work on the St. Lambrecht historic book collection.”

“There can be no better place to keep the collection than the Wiener Holocaust Library,” he added.

Lord Pickles, an Honorary Patron of Campaign Against Antisemitism, has devoted himself to fighting antisemitism throughout his political career. He has been instrumental in securing the widespread adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism. 

Director of the Wiener Holocaust Library, Dr Toby Simpson, said: “The Wiener Library is proud of its long history of throwing light on the darkest chapters of history, and on the Holocaust in particular. It is crucial to ensure that the past is not ignored or locked away, but confronted and used as a tool for building a better future.

“We applaud the British government’s recent efforts to improve access to vital records, and look forward to future cooperation.”

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