Dr Toby Simpson, who is Director of the Library in London, will travel to the Island to make his address at the annual HMD commemoration on 27 January, which in 2025 will mark the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi camp in Auschwitz, Poland.

Dr Simpson joined The Wiener Holocaust Library in 2011, setting up a new programme of exhibition, tours and events. Since that time, the Library’s audiences, activities and impact have steadily increased and it is now more widely recognised than ever as a world leader in Holocaust research, education and remembrance.

On 27 January 2025, the Library is launching its new Wiener Digital Collections resource, which will make thousands of the Library’s fascinating and previously unavailable documents, photos and pamphlets accessible online for the first time. Wiener Digital Collections builds on the work Dr Simpson initiated as the Library’s Head of Digital, including the project ‘Testifying to the Trusty: Eyewitnesses to the Holocaust’, which has catalogued, digitised and translated over 1,000 eyewitness accounts gathered by the Library between 1954 and 1961.

Speaking ahead of his trip to Jersey next month, Dr Simpson said: “The Wiener Holocaust Library is the world’s oldest Holocaust archive. It was founded in the hope of a better future. Our founder, Alfred Wiener, understood very early how dangerous Hitler would be if he was ever able to seize power. He worked to raise the alarm in the hope of preventing catastrophe from engulfing Jews and non-Jews across Europe. He moved the evidence he had gathered to London shortly before the war.

“I am honoured to be in Jersey on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and represent the Library he created. If we are to build a better future, we must grapple more effectively with our past. As Britain’s most extensive Holocaust archive, we have a special responsibility to support the excellent work that is happening in Jersey and throughout the Channel Islands to remember and understand the history of the Nazi occupation of the Islands.”

HMD is a time to remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, and millions more people murdered through the Nazi persecution of other groups. It also marks the more recent genocides recognised by the UK government, as well as the genocide in Darfur. The local commemoration will take place in the Occupation Tapestry Gallery at the Maritime Museum and at the Lighthouse Memorial on the New North Quay. The ceremony is delivered for the Office of the Bailiff by Jersey Heritage in partnership with Jersey Jewish Congregation, Jersey Arts Centre and the UK Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.

Martha Bernstein, of the HMD Advisory Panel to Jersey Heritage, said: “As Director of the world’s oldest archival and library collection relating to the Holocaust and Nazi era, Dr Simpson’s knowledge and experience of sharing research, education and remembrance of this time in history will add great poignancy to the commemoration in Jersey and we look forward to welcoming him to the Island.”

To coincide with Dr Simpson’s visit to Jersey, a free exhibition called ‘On British Soil: Victims of Nazi Persecution in the Channel Islands’ will open in the Link Gallery at Jersey Museum at the beginning of January. The exhibition will include banners prepared by Dr Barbara Warnock, of The Wiener Holocaust Library, and Professor Gilly Carr, of Cambridge University, and will consider the plight of the Islands’ Jewish residents, the experience of the foreign labourers of the Organisation Todt and civilian political prisoners imprisoned and deported for acts of disobedience and defiance.

Dr Simpson said: “The exhibition, ‘On British Soil: Victims of Nazi Persecution in the Channel Islands’, will serve as a vital educational tool, highlighting the stories of those from the Islands, including Jews, slave labourers and anti-Nazi resisters, held in Nazi camps and prisons.”

• ‘On British Soil: Victims of Nazi Persecution in the Channel Islands’ will run from 3-29 January 2025 in the Link Gallery at Jersey Museum. It will then be available for loan to other organisations in the Channel Islands and beyond.

• Jersey’s Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration will take place at 1pm on Monday, 27 January 2025 in the Occupation Tapestry Gallery at the Maritime Museum and at the Lighthouse Memorial on the New North Quay. Members of the public are welcome to attend.