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Importance of records
• ON Tuesday Camden Council marked Holocaust Memorial Day with a rendition of the kaddish, the traditional Jewish mourning prayer.
However, we are in danger of failing one of the great institutions of Holocaust history – the Wiener Library, which wants to move to new premises in Camden.
The Wiener Library, founded by Alfred Wiener in Holland on the eve of the Second World War, moved to London in 1939. It has since grown to become the world’s leading archive of the Holocaust and the anti-Semitism of the Nazi era, a great repository of contemporary records, eye-witness testimonies, and historical accounts.
Obliged to relocate from its existing home in Devonshire Street W1, the library has found a potentially ideal new site in Bloomsbury.
The location would bring it close to those other beacons of excellence in the area: the British Museum, the School of Tropical Hygiene, SOAS, University College London, University College Hospital, and the Wellcome Trust.
Plans to move to this new building, however, have foundered owing, it seems, to the dilatoriness and unco-operativeness of Camden’s planning department.
After two years of frustration the Wiener Library is now on the brink of abandoning its plans to locate to Camden.
The trustees are considering a move, instead, to the east end, where the local council is actively welcoming.
This would be a great loss to Camden, and a blow to its prestige as a centre of learning, tolerance and truth.
Cllr Rebecca Hossack Conservative, Bloomsbury
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