Holocaust Centre, Beth Shalom

Beth Shalom is the UK’s only Holocaust centre and it opened in 1995 in Nottinghamshire.
 
 
The Holocaust Centre promotes an understanding of the roots of discrimination and prejudice, and the development of ethical values, leading to a greater understanding within society. The Centre uses the history of genocide as a model of how society can break down, and emphasises how current and future generations must carefully examine and learn from these tragedies. The Centre promotes respect for human rights, equal opportunities and good citizenship, which has greater resonance than ever in our culturally diverse society.
 
 
'Abandoned' by Naomi Blake
 
Dedicated to my friends and family that never returned, for their courage and dignity.
 
'Out of the depths I cry to you oh Lord' Psalm 130 v1
 
'Why do you hide your face, why do you forget our affliction and oppression' Psalm 44, v 24
Memorial Gardens
 

Outside the Centre’s main building, there is over an acre of beautifully landscaped memorial gardens which provide an important counterpoint to the historical museum. The gardens provide space for reflection and places for individuals to remember their families. They allow visitors to sit in the midst of a living, growing world and absorb the demanding challenge that the Centre presents.

 

Rose Garden

 

The memorial gardens contain a number of different areas, including a beautiful rose garden that has become a place of pilgrimage in its own right. Over 800 visitors to the Centre, many of them survivors and their families, have planted roses in memory of the victims. For many, it is the only place where the names of their parents and siblings are permanently inscribed.

 

 

Sculpture and Stained Glass

The gardens also contain a range of sculptures created by artists who were all survivors. Among the most striking are two commemorative pieces fashioned by the well known sculptor Naomi Blake and Doreen Kern’s depiction of Anne Frank, which particularly resonates with many of the younger visitors.

Stained-glass windows have also been created by artists Roman Halter and Moshe Galili in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

Memorial Museum

 

The memorial museum is at the heart of the Holocaust Centre. It reminds visitors that knowing what happened in the Holocaust is the first necessary step to understanding it.

 

It aims to tell a story of people and how their lives are affected by history.

 

Jewish Life in Europe

The exhibition begins with a collection of faces, places and ways of life lived by Jews right across the European continent prior to the Nazi period.It then goes on to outline the long history of Jews in Europe and the tragic parallel history of antisemitism.

 

 

National Socialism

The visitor is then taken through the development of National Socialism and its implementation of race ideology in the Third Reich, in particular the brutal application of antisemitic laws. The exhibition depicts the immigration crisis, Kristallnacht, the Evian Conference and the Kindertransport, before a two-gallery section describing Europe’s occupation by the Nazis.

 

 

Ghettos and Concentration Camps

The first gallery focuses on the period of ghettoisation – the starvation, forced labour and degrading circumstances of the ghettos in central and Eastern Europe. It then moves on to explain the emergence of the Final Solution, following the occupation of the Soviet Union and the activities of the Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units). The different types of camp and different ways of enforcing the rule of terror are described with specific reference to Auschwitz and Treblinka as sites of mass death.

 

 

Survival

In the final two sections, the exhibition explains the difficulties and pain of survival following the liberation of the camps. It also reflects upon some of the important lessons to be learnt from those who had the courage to care during those dark years

 

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