The AJR is the exclusive charity supporting a unique community united by a shared history and a commitment to preserving the memory of the Holocaust
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We fund Holocaust education, combat antisemitism, and produce leading resources to advance research for future generations
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Home to the UK’s largest community of descendants, we warmly welcome all with a connection to, or interest in, this history: descendants, researchers, and those committed to remembrance, justice and education
Join Us TodayDrawing on powerful material from AJR Refugee Voices and AJR My Story, the below exhibition highlights personal testimonies, photographs and documents from Jewish refugees who fled Nazi persecution and rebuilt their lives in Britain. The exhibition theme will change throughout the year, offering fresh perspectives from our unique testimony archive.
This collection illuminates the experiences of children rescued by the Kindertransport. The Kindertransport was a rescue effort between 1938 and 1939 that brought around 10,000 mostly Jewish children from Nazi-controlled territories to safety in Britain after the rise of Nazi persecution.
27
Members over 100 years of age
+300
Holocaust testimony videos
4
Visits from the King to the AJR
“It was so interesting and incredibly useful listening to Holocaust educators from around the world sharing ideas, challenges, and new ways to reach the next generation in what is now a very different time and world. The insights and conversations have reinforced just how vital it is that we continue to adapt, learn, and find new ways to ensure the lessons of the past remain alive and relevant.”
“Thank you for visiting us yesterday. We thought the meeting went brilliantly. We are so lucky to have a social worker as gentle, understanding and caring as you. We really appreciate all the support and advice you give us.”
“Thank you so much for putting on such an amazing event. I’ve found documents about my grandparents that I hadn’t seen before, including my dad’s name on a Kindertransport list. I can’t tell you how much it means to me and my family and thank everyone at the AJR for all you do.”
“My client arrived on the Kindertransport as a small child. Her husband passed away many years ago, and she does not have children. I visit her each week and we talk about current affairs over coffee and cake, and quite often we go out for lunch together. She recently told me that she had forgotten that I was her volunteer and referred to me as her friend! That’s why I love being a volunteer for the AJR.”
1,857
AJR Members of whom +600 are 1st generation, of which 30 are over 100 years old
+£8m
Directly allocated to members for homecare and other support services
69,599
Minutes of face-to-face volunteer support in the last 12 months
Exclusive Online Talk for AJR Members
Exclusive Online Talk for AJR Members
Exclusive Online Talk for AJR Members
11 September 2026
Over two days and one night, a group
Bernd was born in Fürth in 1931. From a happy childhood in Germany, Bernd remembers Kristallnacht when his father was sent to Dachau. His parents made the agonising decision to send their two children to England on the Kindertransport, and tragically he never saw them again. Bernd has lived a full and active life, training for the Rabbinate and becoming a teacher, a profession he enjoyed for many years. Bernd has served on many committees and boards for both professional and charitable organisations, as well as volunteering and speaking about his life to school-children.
Read Bernd’s fully story in the My Story section on the AJR website.
“Life is not plain sailing... but you know you can bounce back.”
We are so grateful to Ivan Shaw for inviting us into his kitchen and sharing his family legacy and story with us.
Holocaust survivor Ivan Shaw joins chef Ben Rebuck to recreate a traditional Chicken Paprikash with nokedli. For Ivan, cooked alongside stories of resilience, the meal was far more than just ingredients. It was a moving connection to his past and parents.
Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1930, Gerta Neumark grew up with her two older brothers, as part of a family that had fled Galicia in Eastern Europe decades earlier. But following the Anschluss and the violence of Kristallnacht, her widowed mother, Hudel Neumark, worked desperately to secure safe passage out of the country for her children.
Gerta’s mother, along with several other relatives, did not escape Vienna or survive the war. Instead, Hudel Neumark was deported to Maly Trostinets in Belarus, where she was murdered in September 1942.
In this reflection, Gerta’s grandson Oliver Marsh shares the story of his grandmother’s survival and honours his great grandmother’s tenacity and courage, keeping their shared memory alive for future generations.
Did you know the UK had its own rescue camp during WWII?
In 1939, Kitchener Camp in Sandwich, Kent became a sanctuary for thousands of Jewish men fleeing Nazi persecution in Germany and Austria. Rather than a place of hardship, it became a thriving community with workshops, education, and religious services, and many of these men went on to support the British war effort.
Though little remains today, its legacy lives on as an essential chapter of Jewish and British history.
Understanding the turning points of history is essential to ensuring they are never repeated.
Holocaust educator Alex Maws MBE breaks down the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, the legal turning point where the Nazi regime institutionalized racial anti-Semitism, stripped German Jews of their citizenship, and redefined identity as biological.
These laws went beyond restricting livelihoods; they criminalized people’s mere existence.
1,000 years of forgotten history right under our feet 📍
Beneath the City’s modern towers and Barbican concrete lies a hidden medieval past.
After 1066, London’s first Jewish community settled in the Square Mile, leaving behind a legacy from a central burial ground beneath the Barbican to historic street names like Old Jewry.
This is the hidden legacy of the Jewish Square Mile.
As we welcome Rosh Hashanah tonight, we take a moment to look back on a meaningful year full of remembrance, connection, and community. Swipe through to revisit some of the key moments from 5786 🍎🍯
Wishing all of our members, supporters, and friends a sweet, healthy, and peaceful New Year. Shana Tova!
Shana Tova to all our members! 🍎🍯
As we welcome the Jewish New Year, we wish our members, their families and loved ones a year filled with good health, happiness, peace and meaningful moments together.
Wishing you all a sweet and peaceful New Year.
Shana Tova!
The AJR is home to the UK’s largest community of Holocaust refugees and their descendants, welcoming anyone with a connection to – or interest in – this history, from researchers to those committed to remembrance and education.
By supporting the AJR, you help preserve the legacy of Holocaust refugees and survivors and ensure future generations learn from their stories. Through funding Holocaust education, combating antisemitism, and supporting our research, AJR plays a vital role in keeping this history alive.
