About the Centre

Making Memory: The Story of The Holocaust Centre

In this thought-provoking introduction to the creation and concept of The Holocaust Centre, Beth Shalom, Stephen Smith eloquently describes the journey he and his family took in creating Britain's first Holocaust Centre.

Author: S.D.Smith
Paperback Price: £10.00

"It shows what ingenuity, resourcefulness, determination, dedication, a sense of purpose and a belief in a cause can achieve."

Ben Helfgott, Holocaust Survivor

Witness: The Holocaust Centre 10 Years On
When the Holocaust Centre opened in 1995, no one could have imagined from its surprising origins and rural location that it would become such a hub of remembrance and education nationally - or such a source of inspiration internationally. Here, over four hundred voices bear witness to its impact - and to the memory it sustains.

Author: S.D.Smith
Paperback Price: £25.00

"...The scale and quality of this publication is breathtaking ... I have no doubt that it will cause a great impact on very wide circles of admirers and supporters. I certainly hope that there will be enough copies available to place them in the important University Libraries in Great Britain and elsewhere and that a copy may be made available for the library at Yarnton Manor, which is becoming one of the most important libraries for Jewish Studies in Europe. It will attract a very wide readership and encourage people to understand the great importance of the Holocaust and how its memory must be preserved."

Professor David Patterson CBE, Emeritus President, Oxford Centre for Hebrew Studies, Yarnton

Origins

In 1981, Stephen and James Smith and their parents went on a family holiday to Israel that would change their lives. There they began to understand a dimension of Christianity that many Christians missed – that Christianity began in that country, but today is far removed from its Jewish origins. They soon realised that contemporary antisemitism was as Christian as it was evil.

Ten years later, when they were in their early 20s, they spent a day at Yad Vashem, Jerusalem. There they realised that the Holocaust is not a Jewish problem.  It is a problem for anyone brave enough to admit that the Holocaust has consequences for us all. They left Yad Vashem that day, knowing that they had to do something to bring the issues and challenges to their peers and to their country.

Because Britain was not occupied by the Nazis, the vast majority of British people had managed to avoid confronting the reality of the Holocaust. Stephen and James wanted to change this. They understood that the responsibility to question how and why the Holocaust occurred should be taken up equally by everyone. They decided to create an exhibition.

Stephen and James’s parents had long been running a small non-denominational Christian conference centre in the Nottinghamshire countryside. It was the perfect place. They initially thought that their Holocaust exhibition might occupy a few rooms, but it eventually became a memorial centre and museum in its own right.

The Holocaust Centre (1995)

Four years later, in 1995, the first UK Holocaust Centre came into being. It was called Beth Shalom, the place of peace. It soon became a place of education, a place of memory, a place of testimony, a place of art, a place of academia, and much more besides.

The Centre’s fundamental message is that if the victims' wasted lives are to have any meaning at all, we must not only learn about what happened, but also learn from it.