In the 1890s, the arrest, and trial and imprisonment of Jewish French army officer Alfred Dreyfus on false charges of espionage became a sensation in France and across Europe, galvanising both antisemites and their opponents.
The Wiener Holocaust Library’s new exhibition and this accompanying catalogue examine the individuals, organisations and campaigns that have fought back against antisemitism in France, Britain and Germany since this critical moment.
The book features reproductions of original items from on the Library’s extensive collections documenting antisemitism and the struggle against it, as well as rare photographs from the archives of the Community Security Trust.
The exhibition and this catalogue explore a number of crucial moments in the history of the struggle against antisemitism including Alfred Wiener’s work in challenging and seeking to defeat antisemitism Germany in the 1920s and early 1930s and his activities from 1933 in Amsterdam, where he founded Library’s predecessor organisation to monitor and campaign against Nazi antisemitism. In Britain, after the Second World War, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and other groups, such as the 43 Group, adopted a range of sometimes conflicting strategies to take on antisemites, from lobbying government ministers and mounting public information campaigns, to violently sabotaging fascist meetings and infiltrating their organisations. Today, CST work to monitor and overcome antisemitism in Britain.
In this catalogue, find out about more than a century in the fight against antisemitism.