Wiener Library Archive

The Wiener Library traces its roots back to Germany in the 1920s. Dr Alfred Wiener, a German Jew, having fought in WWI, returned to Germany in 1919 and was horrified at the surge of right-wing antisemitism, which blamed Jews for the defeat. Dr Wiener worked with the Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith (Centralverein) to combat antisemitism, writing, lobbying and speaking publicly. From 1925 (the year Hitler published Mein Kampf) he perceived a greater threat from the Nazi Party than any other antisemitic group or party.

Wiener assisted with the creation of an archive known as Buero Wilhelmstrasse, whose director was Hans Reichmann, and which was run by the Centralverein. Its function was to collect information about the Nazis, which formed the basis of campaigns to undermine their activities. When the Nazis came to power the archive was sent away to be destroyed on account of the danger it was likely to put to those involved in its creation.  Dr Wiener and his family fled Germany in 1933 and settled in Amsterdam. Later that year he, along with Dutch based medieval historian, Professor David Cohen became the joint directors of the Jewish Central Information Office at the instigation of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Anglo-Jewish Association. The remit of the JCIO was to gather information about growing antisemitism in Germany and later throughout Europe and disseminate that information to numerous government agencies interested parties worldwide. Some of the methodologies were based on the work of Buero Wilhemstrasse. Following the November Pogrom of 1938, Wiener prepared to bring his collection to the UK. It arrived the following summer and is believed to have opened on the day the Nazis invaded Poland.

During the War the JCIO served the British Government as it fought the Nazi regime. Increasingly the collection was referred to as ‘Dr Wiener's Library' and eventually this led to its renaming. Post-war, the Library assisted the prosecutors at the Nuremberg Trial, amassed early survivor testimony and helped to shape the emerging academic study of the Holocaust. 

Whilst the primary purpose of the library is to collect preserve and make accessible material, throughout its relatively long history the library has necessarily amassed its own archives. Much of this early material has enduring historical value, reflecting as it does the various activities with which the library, and formerly the JCIO, was involved.