The Wiener Library

Background

Background

Dr Alfred Wiener (1885-1964)

Alfred Wiener in his office

Alfred Wiener was the founder and long-time director of the Wiener Library, the oldest documentation centre of the Holocaust.

Alfred Wiener was born in Potsdam on 16 March 1885. He spent part of his childhood in Bentschen, on the Polish border, where his father had a shop. At the age of 11 he and his family moved back to Potsdam. After finishing school, Wiener attended the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums (Institute for Jewish Studies) in Berlin. After a few semesters he abandoned his plan to become a rabbi because he felt that he lacked the necessary vocation. While continuing his studies at the Hochschule, Wiener enrolled also as a student of Oriental languages, history and philosophy at the University of Berlin.

This interest led Wiener to spend two years travelling in the Middle East. He returned in 1909 and he took up his studies, this time at Heidelberg University where, four years later, he graduated with a doctorate.

After a short time spent with educational work, Wiener took up the editorship of the Hamburger Israelitisches Familienblatt, the newspaper of the Hamburg Jewish community. But already half a year later, in April 1915, he received his call-up papers. As a patriot he served proudly in the German army.

From 1919 Wiener served as an official to the Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens (Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith, CV), the leading conservative and non-Zionist organisation in Germany. The CV promoted the compatibility of Germanness and Jewishness and served as an advocate for Jewish rights. Wiener was not only a promoter of the CV’s agenda both in print and as a public speaker, he also helped to formulate its policies and to implement them.

Monitoring Nazi activities
Wiener and the CV began monitoring Nazi activities and propaganda as early as 1925. In the early 1930s Wiener made it his task to approach a great number of influential people to publicise as widely as possible what a Nazi Government would mean.

Not surprisingly, the Nazis targeted the CV soon after Hitler’s rise to power, raiding its offices in March 1933.

Establishing the JCIO
Having studied Nazi politics for so long, by 1933 Wiener was in no doubt that he had to leave Germany and he made his preparations to go into exile. He went to Amsterdam where he and Prof David Cohen (1882-1967) established the Jewish Central Information Office (JCIO). It was their aim to collect comprehensive information about the antisemitic policy of the Nazis and its daily implementation, and to distribute it as a warning.

The developing political events caused Wiener to move the JCIO to London where he planned to only stay for only a few months, but he ended up staying for the rest of his life. His wife, Margarethe (1895-1945), whom he had married in 1921 and their three daughters Ruth, Eva and Mirjam remained in Amsterdam, from where they were eventually taken first to Westerbork and then deported to Bergen-Belsen.

Throughout the war, Wiener was financially supported by the British government in order to provide them with information on the developments in Germany. As part of these activities he often travelled to the States where he also worked for the US government.

Wiener’s wife, Margarethe, did not survive Bergen-Belsen, dying a few hours after liberation. Wiener’s daughters, who had been liberated together with her, were handed over to the U.S. army and were eventually sent to New York where they stayed temporarily with foster families. In 1947, Wiener and his daughters were re-united again in London.

Transforming the JCIO
From 1945 onwards, Wiener began to transform the Information Office into a library and centre for research. In order to make a living, Wiener traded in second-hand and antiquarian books. In 1953, Wiener married Lotte Philips. The 1950s were also the time where he initiated contacts in Germany with the aim of educating the younger generation in particular about the atrocities committed in Germany and by Germans.

On his 70th birthday, in 1955, Wiener was awarded the highest decoration, the Großes Verdienstkreuz des Verdienstordens (Grand Cross of the Order of Merit), acknowledging his achievements in founding the library and teaching about the Holocaust. He continued to be actively involved in the library’s affairs until his death on 4 February 1964.