Jewish Museum London displays items from Leon Greenman’s life at National Holocaust Centre and Museum, and loans Greenman archive to Nottingham University

Holocaust Memorial Day: January 27th 2024

Items from Leon Greenman’s life on display at National Holocaust Centre and Museum

Jewish Museum London is proud to display a selection of items and images from Holocaust survivor Leon Greenman’s life within the gallery dedicated in his honour at the National Holocaust Centre and Museum.

London-born Greenman was a father and a husband living in the Netherlands at the time of Nazi occupation. He was unable to prove his and his family’s British identity and they were first sent to the deportation camp Westerbork and then on to Auschwitz-Birkenau where his wife Else and his son Barney were murdered upon arrival. Greenman survived 18 months of concentration and labour camps and made a promise to tell his story to the outside world – a promise he kept from 1946 until his death in March 2008.

The gallery collection focuses on the theme of determination, a defining trait throughout the life of Leon Greenman. The display celebrates his dedication to telling the world about the Holocaust, including several signs created to advertise his public speaking work educating communities about the Holocaust, including engagements with the Anti-Nazi League and Oxford University Jewish Society. The collection also features items from key milestones in Leon’s life: a wooden truck made by Greenman for his son Barney, the uniform he wore at Buchenwald, the final camp he was held prisoner, and his OBE medal, awarded in 1998 for his services to education.

Since becoming a museum without walls in September, Jewish Museum London’s collections can now be experienced in a growing number of venues, including Museum of London Docklands, the Faith Museum in County Durham, and JW3. In December, Jewish Museum London was delighted to announce the award of funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund of £231,000 for the project Jewish Museum London on the Move. This generous grant will support the development of a new operating model for museum activities to be delivered in the community after relocating from the former building in Camden, as the museum works towards its vision of a new permanent home.

The museum is also grateful to the University of Nottingham’s Manuscripts and Collections department for hosting the Leon Greenman archive during this period of transition. The archive contains a range of material relating to Greenman’s life, including items which have previously been displayed or used in research, and uncatalogued material which will be methodically registered over the coming years.

Jewish Museum London will host a free broadcast for secondary schools on Friday 26th January, the day before Holocaust Memorial Day, exploring this year’s theme, the Fragility of Freedom, by looking at objects from the museum’s collection. This broadcast will include a live candle lighting in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, Nazi persecution and subsequent genocides.

Jewish Museum London Chair Nick Viner said: “Leon Greenman’s distinctive British testimony, and his willingness over his life to share it, provides an immensely important contribution to our understanding of the Holocaust. At Jewish Museum London, as part of our commitment to challenging antisemitism through education and sustaining the legacy of Leon Greenman, we’re delighted to be collaborating with the National Holocaust Centre and Museum, and with the University of Nottingham. Partnerships such as these are vital to our work as a museum without walls, engaging audiences nationally in the heritage and history of British Jews, as we continue our transition towards a future museum.”

Marc Cave, Director, National Holocaust Museum said: “We’re honoured to house these objects during JML’s ‘museum without walls’ period. They are an emotive addition to our Leon Greenman Determination gallery and this is a fitting moment for our two museums to dovetail once more. Right now, anti-Jewish racism hangs in the air. Leon drew on his Holocaust experiences to power his brave anti-racism campaigning in England. In turn, we will draw on Leon’s memory to power our fight against the anti-Jewish conspiracy theories and casual violence swilling around our streets and so called ‘peace protests’ today.”

For press enquiries, please contact David Lasserson and Eleanor Flanagan at Brunswick Arts: [email protected]

Enquiries or access to Leon Greenman archive material can be made via [email protected].

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Background Notes

Founded in 1932 by Professor Cecil Roth, Alfred Rubens and Wilfred Samuel, the Jewish Museum was originally located in Woburn House in Bloomsbury, it moved to an elegant early Victorian listed building in Camden Town in 1994.

The London Museum of Jewish Life was founded in 1983 as the Museum of the Jewish East End with the aim of rescuing and preserving the disappearing heritage of London’s East End – the heartland of Jewish settlement in Britain. While the East End has remained an important focus, the Museum expanded to reflect the diverse roots and social history of Jewish people across London, including the experiences of refugees from Nazism. It also developed an acclaimed programme of Holocaust and anti-racist education.

In 1995 the two Museums were amalgamated. Between 1995 and 2007 the combined Jewish Museum ran on two sites, but with a long term aim to find the means to combine the two collections, activities and displays within a single site.

Following years of planning and fundraising the Museum bought a former piano factory behind the Camden Town site and raised the required funds to combine and remodel the buildings. The new Museum opened to the public on 17 March 2010 and its award-winning education and exhibition programmes have attracted popular and critical acclaim.

In June 2023 Jewish Museum London announced the sale of the building in Camden, in order to develop plans for a new museum, fit for the future and more sustainable, in a more prominent location. In the meantime, the museum continues to share its collection with the broadest possible range of audiences, both in person and online.