Imperial War Museums Launches New Holocaust Learning DVD

Imperial War Museums (IWM) has proudly launched a new learning resource which provides learners with essential context about pre-Second World War Jewish life and culture and explores roots of antisemitism.

Around 70 Holocaust survivors and their families, educators and teachers attended a reception at IWM London in late 2012 where the films, The Way We Lived and Roots of Antisemitism were screened.

The project was generously funded by The Rothschild Foundation (Europe). For this project, IWM London worked closely with Paul Salmons, Programme Director of the Centre for Holocaust Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, as well as a wide range of Holocaust educators, scholars and organisations including the Jewish Deaf Association in the UK, The Wiener Library, The Jewish Museum in London, the National Center for Jewish Film and the Museum of Jewish Heritage in the United States and Yad Vashem in Israel.

The Way We Lived contains interviews with a variety of Holocaust survivors who speak movingly about their pre-Second World War lives; including memories of holidays in Sopot on the Polish coast, mothers preparing for Shabbat and what it was like growing up in 1930s Germany. Responding to feedback from visitors to IWM London’s The Holocaust Exhibition and research carried out by the Centre for Holocaust Education that highlighted many students struggled with understanding why Jewish people were persecuted by the Nazis and their collaborators, IWM London decided to include the short film Roots of Antisemitism on the DVD to begin to address this issue.  The film explores the changing nature of hatred and discrimination toward Jewish people from the early days of Christianity to the rise of the Nazis.

If you would like to find out more about this project please contact Rachel Donnelly, Holocaust Learning Officer, IWM London, at: rdonnelly [at] iwm.org.uk.