Name: The Holocaust Galleries: A Guided Tour
Start: 2023-01-13
End: 2023-01-27
Location: IWM London

Selected Wednesdays

3pm to 4pm

IWM London

£15 adult

Book Tickets

A visitor looks at a display in The Holocaust Galleries

The Holocaust Galleries at IWM London offer an account of the events that came to be known as the Holocaust and tell the personal stories of some of the six million Jewish people who were murdered.

How did persecution turn to mass extermination? Drawing on a rich collection of objects, from a teddy bear taken on the Kindertransport, to the typewriter used to type the lists that sent thousands to their deaths, this guided headset tour looks at the origins and implementation of the ‘Final Solution’ and some of the stories of the men, women and children caught up in these terrible events.

Important information

The tour is not recommended for children under the age of 14.

This tour uses a microphone and headphones system, so you can hear your guide clearly throughout, and for discretion in the gallery.

The tour lasts approximately 60 minutes.

Object highlights

© IWM UNI 3381

Sturmabteilung uniform

This ‘brown shirt’ uniform would have been worn by members of the Nazi Party’s paramilitary wing, the Sturmabteilung - or SA. Predominantly formed at first from veterans of the First World War, the SA sought to undermine the Weimar Republic by violently promoting Nazi ideology throughout Germany. Their numbers eclipsed the German military. The fatal decision to allow Hitler to become Chancellor was, in part, driven by the desire for someone, anyone, to reestablish order on the streets of Germany.
© IWM COM 134

Typewriter

This elegant typewriter was used by the Reich Commissar of the Occupied Netherlands, Arthur Seyss-Inquart. It is indicative of the bureaucratic dimensions of the Holocaust. Seyss-Inquart, as with most high-ranking Nazis, had not personally murdered a single Jewish person; but with the printed page and the fountain pen, they had murdered entire peoples. Before the war the Netherlands was known for its rich association with Jewish cultures. By 1945 117,000 of the 140,000 Jewish people who lived in the country had been murdered.
© IWM EPH 2311

Spoon

This plain, metal spoon was used by a 5-year-old Jewish girl, Maryisa. She and an older Jewish lady would be fed each evening at the home of a Polish mother, Anna Wiechec. The pair remained with Anna and her family overnight and left the house during the day to hide in Krakow. One morning they left as usual but never returned. The Nazis threatened anyone caught hiding Jewish people in occupied-Poland with execution. Anna’s family lived in poverty and had barely enough food to feed themselves. Had she, instead, chose to denounce them she would have received a financial reward and rationed food items.
© IWM EPH 10204

Steinmetz tablecloth

The underside of this tablecloth was used to fashion yellow badges for the Steinmetz family in Hungary. In 1944 the parents and 11 children were sent to Auschwitz as part of the so-called ‘Hungarian action’. Menahem Steinmetz was one of only four siblings that survived. Before he left for Britain, he returned to his former family home to collect the tablecloth. It had been hand-woven by his mother and sisters and was perhaps the only object that connected him to his family. This was more than many survivors could claim to have upon liberation.
© IWM EPH 7249

Anita Lasker’s jumper

Anita was sent to Auschwitz with her sister in 1943. While there she bartered a large bread ration for this red jumper. Her survival at the notorious camp was partly due to her having been forced to join the infamous Auschwitz orchestra. She had been a cellist from an early age. Being in the orchestra exempted her from ongoing selections. She was liberated from Belsen in April 1945. She was 19 years of age but said that she felt like she was 90.

The Holocaust Galleries: A Guided Tour

Selected Wednesdays

IWM London

£15 adult

Important information

Object highlights

Sturmabteilung uniform

Typewriter

Spoon

Steinmetz tablecloth

Anita Lasker’s jumper

The Holocaust Galleries:
A Guided Tour