Help tell the stories that matter
Help tell the stories that matter
A study of 8,000 English secondary school pupils showed that 63% of young people did not know what the term antisemitism meant.* It's as urgent now as any time to increase the public understanding of the Second World War and the Holocaust.
IWM London is the first museum in the world to house dedicated Second World War and The Holocaust galleries under the same roof, changing the way young people understand the past for generations to come. Thanks to a very generous group of supporters we opened the new galleries to the public in October 2021.
Over the last year, IWM has suffered a dramatic loss of revenue through the closure of our venues. Please consider supporting the continued conservation and preservation of these Galleries as an essential educational resource for future generations.
Make a donation
Show your support at any level through our JustGiving page. Any gift we receive, no matter the size, makes a vital contribution to our ongoing work, from conserving our collection to supporting our public programme.
Help us keep history alive
Your valued donation will directly help us tell the personal stories of the Second World War and the Holocaust, and ensure our team of experts can:
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© IWMDeliver world-class learning suites to educate future generations on this defining period of the 20th century.
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© IWM A photograph of Wohl family outside of family businessDisplay the personal belongings of people like the Wohl family, who were torn apart and never reunited by the Nazi persecution of Jewish communities and the outbreak of the Second World War.
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Carefully manoeuvre collections items such as this V-1 flying bomb into position.
Foster Future Understanding
Foster Future Understanding
Our new learning programme will give students the chance to have facilitated conversations, interact with our collections, and use innovative technology to reflect on, and find their own answers to, key questions about the Holocaust.
IWM will also support teachers, ensuring they are fully equipped to illuminate this challenging period in history for future generations.
By supporting the new galleries, you are directly helping nurture students’ curiosity and enhance their understanding.
Conserving a Masterpiece
Conserving a Masterpiece
Support from our generous donors has allowed us to do essential conservation of artworks such as Paul Nash's Battle of Britain, which brings to life the intense aerial campaign fought between Britain and Germany in the summer of 1940.
Completed in 1941, Nash intended the work to capture an overall impression of this three-month battle rather than one single event. The oil painting are displayed in the new galleries as a striking visual that illustrates key elements of the aerial campaign.
Before any of our artworks were able to go on display, conservation was key. Your support of the new galleries ensures that our experts can display paintings in the best possible condition and preserve them for generations of visitors to come.
Stories from our supporters
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Students raising funds
A message from Genocide80Twenty – a group of students who work in their spare time to raise awareness of the Holocaust and other genocides:
“With the rise of antisemitism and Holocaust denial in this country and around the world we know how important education about the Holocaust is. That is why our school group, ‘Genocide80Twenty’, decided to write a book about it for our peers. Many of us in our group had been to the current Holocaust exhibition at IWM in previous years and know the impact that our visits had on us. Holocaust survivors will sadly not be with us to educate the next generation of young people and so we think that having superb museums to help young people understand the history of the Holocaust is absolutely vital. That is why we have decided to support the new Holocaust Galleries with the proceeds of our book.”
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A message from Sophia Webster
"This Holocaust Memorial Day I donated 20% of all full-price sales from sophiawebster.com to IWM’s Holocaust Galleries. This donation is in loving memory of my wonderful Grandma, Ruth Webster née Steindler, a Czech Jewish refugee who fled Nazi-occupied Prague aged 7. Arriving in London, she had to learn a new language and adopt a new culture, living with strangers. She was reunited with her mother but never saw her father again. Grandma never forgot her homeland but was forever grateful to have escaped the Holocaust and be given the opportunity to grow up and belong in a new country.
Imperial War Museum London was very close to my Grandma’s heart, having worked there as an educator for many years sharing her story as a young Holocaust survivor to the schools who visited. She passionately dedicated her life to teaching young people about the dangerous consequences of persecution, discrimination and hate."
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Support us
If you are a trust, company, organisation, foundation or individual donor interested in supporting this project, please contact Andrew Higgins, Director of Development.