About
The National Holocaust Centre and Museum at Laxton in Nottinghamshire is the United Kingdom's dedicated national museum for Holocaust remembrance and education — a place of profound moral and historical importance in the British cultural landscape. Founded in 1995 by brothers James and Stephen Smith following a family visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C., the centre is housed in a sensitively converted Victorian country house known as Beth Shalom (Hebrew: House of Peace), set in peaceful gardens in the Nottinghamshire countryside.
The museum provides a comprehensive, deeply moving, and rigorously researched account of the Holocaust — the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945. The murder of the Jews was accompanied by the persecution of other groups targeted by Nazi ideology: Roma and Sinti people, disabled people, LGBTQ+ individuals, Soviet prisoners of war, political opponents, Jehovah's Witnesses, and others. The museum presents this history with honesty, scholarly rigour, and compassion.
The permanent exhibitions use survivor testimony, contemporary photography, documents, letters, personal objects, and film to tell both the historical narrative and the deeply personal stories of individuals caught in the catastrophe of the Holocaust. The approach is deliberately personal and humanising — the museum insists on the individuality of every victim, refusing to allow the scale of the murder to obscure the particular human being behind each story.
The role of survivor testimony is central to the museum's mission. For three decades, the centre built relationships with Holocaust survivors, many of whom visited regularly to share their experiences directly with school groups and visitors. As the generation of survivors ages, the museum has worked to preserve these testimonies in digital and recorded form, ensuring that the voices of those who experienced the Holocaust directly continue to be heard by future generations.
Education is the absolute heart of the National Holocaust Centre. The centre runs one of the most comprehensive schools programmes in the country, welcoming tens of thousands of students annually and offering a wide range of teacher training and professional development. The museum works with teachers, educators, and community groups across the UK to embed Holocaust education within the curriculum and to address the contemporary lessons that the history of the Holocaust teaches about prejudice, discrimination, and the consequences of hatred. A Garden of Remembrance in the grounds provides a reflective outdoor space for quiet memorial.
Categories:
Highlights
The Holocaust — Historical Exhibition
The core permanent exhibition presents a comprehensive account of the Holocaust from the rise of the Nazi party in 1933 through systematic persecution, the introduction of the race laws, Kristallnacht, the mass shootings of the Einsatzgruppen, the Wannsee Conference, the death camps, and the liberation.
The exhibition uses historical photographs, documents, maps, and film footage, presented with rigorous scholarship and deep moral seriousness.
It contextualises the Holocaust within the broader history of European antisemitism and the specific conditions of Nazi Germany, making the connections between ideology, state power, and mass murder unmistakably clear.
Survivor Testimonies
The testimony galleries are the emotional and moral heart of the National Holocaust Centre. For thirty years, the centre built relationships with Holocaust survivors who came to share their experiences directly with visitors and school groups. As this generation ages, their testimonies have been carefully recorded and are presented in the galleries through film, audio, and written accounts.
The effect is deeply personal — moving from historical statistics and documents to the individual human being, named and remembered, whose life intersected with these catastrophic historical events. This insistence on individuality and personal testimony is central to the museum's educational philosophy.
The Garden of Remembrance
The Garden of Remembrance in the grounds of Beth Shalom provides a carefully designed space for quiet reflection and memorial. The garden incorporates memorials, planting, and pathways that create a contemplative environment appropriate for processing the emotional experience of the museum's exhibitions.
Many visitors — particularly school groups — find that time in the garden after the exhibitions is important for reflection and the transition back to ordinary life.
The garden is open during museum visiting hours and is a place of genuine calm and memorial significance.
The Persecution of Other Groups
While the murder of six million Jews is the central focus of the museum, the National Holocaust Centre gives dedicated attention to other groups persecuted and murdered by the Nazi regime. Roma and Sinti people, disabled people who were the first victims of systematic Nazi murder (through the T4 euthanasia programme), LGBTQ+ individuals, political opponents, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Soviet prisoners of war all receive specific treatment.
This comprehensiveness reflects the museum's commitment to historical accuracy and to the recognition of all victims of Nazi persecution.
Collections
The Holocaust — The Full Story
Comprehensive historical exhibition covering the Holocaust from 1933 to liberation, using documents, photographs, film, and personal testimonies.
Survivor Voices
Recorded testimonies and personal stories of Holocaust survivors, preserved for future generations.
The Garden of Remembrance
Memorial garden providing a space for quiet reflection — open during all visiting hours.
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.