The UK Holocaust Map

Discover the UK's sites of Holocaust memory — those places relating to the victims, survivors and refugees of Nazism as well as rescuers, liberators and aid givers.

Sites all across the UK help to tell the story of the Holocaust and British responses to Nazism. Learn about your local connections to the worst crime ever committed. The UK Holocaust Map is an ongoing project of The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) and the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities. If you are aware of content which might be suitable for this map, please contact map@ajr.org.uk.

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Rescuers

Those people who made a choice to try to rescue Jews — often at great risk to their own safety — rather than stand by and watch as the situation became increasingly desperate, certainly did not do so in the hope of gaining recognition. Although we will never know all of their names, at least two awards have been created to honour those whose actions we are now aware of: the 'Righteous Among the Nations' award created by Israel's Yad Vashem in 1963 and the 'British Heroes of the Holocaust' award created by the UK Government in 2009.

Refugee Committees

In the wake of the annexation of Austria by Hitler’s troops in March 1938, many local refugee committees in Britain were set up to take care of the expected influx of refugees. The momentum for this grew after Kristallnacht (the November Pogroms) in November 1938. By the outbreak of war some 200 local refugee committees had been established in all part of the UK.

Internment Camps

When war was declared in September 1939, all Germans and Austrians living in the UK became classed as enemy aliens. This even applied to Jewish refugees. At first, the vast majority, well over 60,000, were classed as ‘victims of Nazi oppression’ and exempted from internment. But in May 1940, Winston Churchill issued his famous edict to “collar the lot”, in other words to intern all so-called enemy aliens regardless of their religion or political affiliation.

Hostels

Although the majority of young Jewish refugees from the Nazis were found homes in foster families, many of them, especially older boys and girls, were housed and care for in hastily created hostels. These were often set up and financed by local refugee committees, synagogue, church or Quaker organisations.

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