Holocaust museums and learning centres
Helping future generations understand the Holocaust through places of learning and remembrance
As the Holocaust passes out of living memory, museums, exhibitions, archives and learning centres have an increasingly important role to play. They create opportunities for people to engage directly with survivor testimony, original artefacts and historical evidence, deepening understanding of the Holocaust and its continuing relevance today.
Pears Foundation has partnered with organisations across the UK that are helping future generations learn about the Holocaust in thoughtful, rigorous and engaging ways. Although each takes a different approach, they share a commitment to combining historical scholarship with powerful educational experiences that encourage critical thinking and deepen understanding.
Our largest investment in this area was as lead donor for the Holocaust Galleries at Imperial War Museums London. Opened in 2021, the Galleries place individual stories at the heart of a major new permanent exhibition exploring the Holocaust within the wider context of the Second World War. Through survivor testimony, original artefacts and carefully curated historical interpretation, they help visitors understand both the particularity of the Holocaust and the human consequences of prejudice, persecution and genocide.
Alongside this national partnership, we have supported a number of organisations that make distinctive contributions to Holocaust learning. Our longest-standing relationship is with the National Holocaust Museum, where more than two decades of unrestricted funding has supported organisational development, education programmes, survivor testimony and digital innovation. We are also a founding supporter of the Holocaust Centre North, helping establish a major new regional centre for Holocaust remembrance and learning, and support the Wiener Holocaust Library, one of the world’s leading archives on the Holocaust, the Nazi era and genocide.
Together, these partnerships reflect our belief that understanding the Holocaust requires more than preserving historical knowledge. By investing in places that combine education, scholarship, collections and remembrance, we hope to ensure that future generations continue to engage critically with one of history’s defining events and the profound questions it raises about humanity, responsibility and society.