Powerbase research: Create Wiener Holocaust Library: charity 313015 / company 00596820; Companies House record, officers, audited accounts 2025 (income GBP 1,967,258), library history and mission from Internet Archive captures

2026-11-11T17:00:05Z

Create Wiener Holocaust Library: charity 313015 / company 00596820; Companies House record, officers, audited accounts 2025 (income GBP 1,967,258), library history and mission from Internet Archive captures

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{{short description|London Holocaust archive and research library, founded in 1933 (charity 313015; company 00596820)}}
{{Infobox organization
| name = The Wiener Holocaust Library
| type = Registered charity and private company limited by guarantee
| registration_id = Charity 313015; company 00596820
| founded = 1933 (per its website); company incorporated 9 January 1958
| revenue = £1,967,258 (year to 2025-12-31)
}}
'''The Wiener Holocaust Library''' is a London archive and library on the Holocaust and the Nazi era, at 29 Russell Square. Its website says it was founded by Dr Alfred Wiener in 1933 and describes it as "one of the world's leading and most extensive archives on the Holocaust and Nazi era".<ref name="WHL-WEB-ABOUT">The Wiener Holocaust Library, [https://web.archive.org/web/20251202032719/https://wienerholocaustlibrary.org/about-us/ About us] (Internet Archive capture of 2 December 2025; the live site blocks automated access), accessed 11 November 2026.</ref> It is a registered charity (313015) and a private company limited by guarantee (00596820); the company was incorporated on 9 January 1958 and the charity registered on 20 September 1967, and the company has changed name several times, most recently to The Wiener Holocaust Library in October 2019.<ref name="WHL-CH">Companies House, [https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00596820 The Wiener Holocaust Library (00596820): overview], [https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00596820/officers officers], [https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00596820/persons-with-significant-control persons with significant control], [https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00596820/filing-history filing history] and [https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00596820/charges charges], accessed 11 November 2026.</ref><ref name="WHL-AA2025">Companies House filing history for The Wiener Holocaust Library (00596820), [https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/00596820/filing-history/MzU1MDQxOTA1MmFkaXF6a2N4/document?format=pdf&download=0 trustees' report and audited financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2025], filed 12 Oct 2026, accessed 11 November 2026.</ref>

Several Powerbase pages already link to this title, among them [[The Pears Family Charitable Foundation]], [[The Sigrid Rausing Trust]], [[David Cesarani]] and [[Zionist family foundations in the UK - a ranking]].

==What the library says about itself==
Its history page says the library grew out of the work of Dr Alfred Wiener, who campaigned against Nazism in the 1920s and 1930s and collected evidence on antisemitism and the persecution of Jews in Germany. Wiener and his family left Germany in 1933 and settled in Amsterdam; later that year he set up the Jewish Central Information Office (JCIO) "at the request of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Anglo-Jewish Association".<ref name="WHL-WEB-HIST">The Wiener Holocaust Library, [https://web.archive.org/web/20251219090648/https://wienerholocaustlibrary.org/who-we-are/history/ History] (Internet Archive capture of 19 December 2025), accessed 11 November 2026.</ref> After the November Pogrom of 1938 he prepared to bring the collection to the UK, where it arrived the following summer; the site says the JCIO served the British Government during the war and that the collection came to be called "Dr Wiener's Library", which led to the library's later name.<ref name="WHL-WEB-HIST" />

Its mission statement lists three aims: to serve scholars, professional researchers, the media and the public "as a library of record"; to be "a living memorial to the evils of the past"; and to engage people of all ages and backgrounds in understanding the Holocaust through an educational programme. It also says its reputation "rests on its independence and the scholarly objectivity of its activities and publications".<ref name="WHL-WEB-MISSION">The Wiener Holocaust Library, [https://web.archive.org/web/20251223054622/https://wienerholocaustlibrary.org/who-we-are/mission-and-strategy/ Mission and strategy] (Internet Archive capture of 23 December 2025), accessed 11 November 2026.</ref>

==Companies House record==
The company is active, with SIC code 91012 (archives activities), a registered office at 29 Russell Square, London WC1B 5DP, and a last confirmation statement dated 5 June 2026. Companies House records no person with significant control (the company's statement is that there is no registrable person) and no charges.<ref name="WHL-CH" /> The register lists these names for the company: Institute of Contemporary History and Wiener Library Limited (from incorporation to 23 November 2006); The Wiener Library Institute of Contemporary History (to 26 October 2015); The Wiener Library (to 20 September 2019); The Wiener Holocaust Library Limited (20 September to 25 October 2019); and The Wiener Holocaust Library since 25 October 2019.<ref name="WHL-CH" />

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Current officers of The Wiener Holocaust Library (00596820) as listed by Companies House on 11 November 2026 (name, role, status and dates only; former officers are not listed here)
! Name !! Role !! Status !! Appointed !! Resigned
|-
| Catherine Colloms || Director || Active || 10 May 2018 || –
|-
| Lizzie Marx || Director || Active || 10 May 2018 || –
|-
| Jennifer Susan Rofe-Radcliffe || Secretary || Active || 1 October 2020 || –
|-
| Howard Steven Lewis || Director || Active || 18 October 2023 || –
|-
| John Alfred George Alexander || Director || Active || 31 July 2024 || –
|-
| Mary Jean Alexandra Fulbrook || Director || Active || 17 October 2024 || –
|-
| Daniel Peltz || Director || Active || 17 October 2024 || –
|-
| Professor Sir Richard John Evans || Director || Active || 24 April 2025 || –
|-
| Professor William Howard Sherman || Director || Active || 24 April 2025 || –
|}

==Accounts and governance==
The accounts for the year to 31 December 2025 are audited (by Sayer Vincent LLP) and were filed on 12 October 2026. They show total income of £1,967,258 (2024: £2,151,979) and total expenditure of £2,097,544 (2024: £2,065,813); investment gains of £217,572 brought the net result to a surplus of £87,286, and total funds rose from £8,188,487 to £8,275,773.<ref name="WHL-AA2025" /> The trustees' report says the library relies for substantially all of its income on donations from non-state foundations, charities, other grant-giving bodies, government departments and individuals, and that around £4.2 million of invested funds is exposed to market risk.<ref name="WHL-AA2025" />

{| class="wikitable"
|+ The Wiener Holocaust Library: statement of financial activities for the year to 31 December 2025 (£)
! Item !! 2025 !! 2024
|-
| Donations and legacies (all unrestricted)<ref name="WHL-AA2025" /> || 927,382 || 998,424
|-
| Charitable activities || 910,200 || 1,045,995
|-
| Investments || 119,993 || 97,765
|-
| Other trading activities || 9,683 || 9,795
|-
| Total income || 1,967,258 || 2,151,979
|-
| Expenditure on raising funds || 162,910 || 200,513
|-
| Expenditure on charitable activities || 1,934,634 || 1,865,300
|-
| Total expenditure || 2,097,544 || 2,065,813
|-
| Net expenditure before gains on investments || (130,286) || 86,166
|-
| Net gains on investments || 217,572 || 162,849
|-
| Net income for the year || 87,286 || 249,015
|-
| Total funds carried forward || 8,275,773 || 8,188,487
|}

The note on unrestricted donations and grants breaks the 2025 total down as follows.<ref name="WHL-AA2025" />

{| class="wikitable"
|+ The Wiener Holocaust Library: unrestricted income from grants, donations and legacies (note 2 to the accounts, £)
! Source as listed in the note !! 2025 !! 2024
|-
| The Wiener Library Endowment Trust<ref name="WHL-AA2025" /> || 220,000 || 220,000
|-
| The Sigrid Rausing Trust || 100,000 || 120,000
|-
| Association of Jewish Refugees || 50,000 || 50,000
|-
| Pears Foundation || 70,000 || 35,000
|-
| "Peltz Grant" || 20,000 || 15,000
|-
| Grants and donations || 357,332 || 246,984
|-
| Patrons' and Guardians' events || 67,050 || 309,440
|-
| Legacies || 43,000 || 2,000
|-
| Total || 927,382 || 998,424
|}

The trustees' report names these as the library's "Funding Partners" for 2025: the Association of Jewish Refugees; the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany; the Ernest Hecht Charitable Foundation; David Lewis CBE; the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office; the Jane Rappeport Foundation; the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government; the National Lottery Heritage Fund; the Pears Foundation; Elizabeth and Daniel Peltz OBE; the Sigrid Rausing Trust; the Weldon UK Charitable Trust; and the Wiener Library Endowment Trust. It lists further Guardians and Patrons as well.<ref name="WHL-AA2025" />

The report records that the library's Director of six years, Dr Toby Simpson, left in 2025, and that Dr Barbara Warnock and Dr Christine Schmidt became Co-Directors; that Daniel Peltz OBE became Chair of trustees on 23 January 2025, succeeding Anthony Landes; and that the trustees are unpaid.<ref name="WHL-AA2025" /> For 2026 to 2030 it sets out five strategic aims, including extending the Russell Square site, a research initiative called "Truth against Tyranny" on the library's own history, and a partnership with the University of London.<ref name="WHL-AA2025" />

==Identification and limits==
*This page records Companies House information, the audited accounts for 2025 and the library's own web pages. The library's website blocks automated access, so the web pages were read from Internet Archive captures dated December 2025; they may not match the live site.
*The accounts are scanned images and were read page by page; the main statement figures were checked by eye against the page images and add up.
*In the 2025 report's narrative the 2024 comparatives for unrestricted core-funder grants (£425,000) and other unrestricted donations (£573,424) differ from the sums of the note 2 lines (£440,000 and £558,424), although both give the same £998,424 total; the table above uses the note.
*Earlier years' accounts, and the library's endowment and designated funds, were not analysed beyond the headline figures.
*The Charity Commission register could not be opened from the research box; the charity number comes from the accounts and the library's website.
*The accounts name two trustees appointed in 2025 (Dame Tamara Finkelstein and Peter Oppenheimer) who were not in the Companies House officer list read on 11 November 2026, so the officer table may be incomplete.
*Officer details are limited to names, roles, status and dates from the public register.

==See also==
*[[Board of Deputies of British Jews]]
*[[The Pears Family Charitable Foundation]]
*[[The Sigrid Rausing Trust]]

==Notes==
<references/>
[[Category:Charities]]
[[Category:Charities in England and Wales]]
[[Category:Jewish charities in the United Kingdom]]

Wiener Holocaust Library - Revision history

Powerbase research: Create Wiener Holocaust Library: charity 313015 / company 00596820; Companies House record, officers, audited accounts 2025 (income GBP 1,967,258), library history and mission from Internet Archive captures