Due to the ongoing coronavirus situation, EHRI partner The Wiener Holocaust Library has had to postpone the showing of the temporary exhibition Leave to Land: The Kitchener Camp Rescue, 1939 and has adapted the display and created an online version which is available for visitors to explore whilst at home.

The Library’s new online exhibition, The Kitchener Camp, 1939-1940, highlights the largely forgotten story of the Kitchener Camp. In 1939, this derelict army base on the Kent coast became the scene of an extraordinary rescue which saved 4,000 men from the Holocaust. 

Yom HaShoah or Holocaust Remembrance Day is the date in the Jewish calendar to mourn the loss of the six million people murdered during the Holocaust. This year Yom HaShoah falls on 20 April. Due to the coronavirus situation, the commemorations will be very different from previous years. However, many EHRI partners and associates have found ways to mark the event online.

The Dutch Network of War Collections (Netwerk Oorlogsbronnen) has won a prestigious GLAMi Award with its WarLives.org website. This is one of the most important international prizes in the field of heritage and innovation. The Award is presented every year during the MuseWeb Conference in the United States. In other categories, winners included the Smithsonian Institution and The Getty.

Green Light for Fellowship and Training Programme

Last week, the European Commission announced that EHRI would receive new funding from the Research and Innovation Programme Horizon2020 to sustain and further develop its main resources and services. Already in the process of transforming from a project into a permanent body for international Holocaust research, EHRI now, with this new funding, can maintain and expand its successful resources, such as the fellowships, training activities and the EHRI Portal. Hence, over the next 4 years, EHRI will follow two paths: developing into a permanent infrastructure and progressing as a longstanding, active project. Having both streams of funding is especially good news for our user community as it means that they can keep on using EHRI’s new and improved services, while behind the scene, foundations for a stable organization are being built.