Founded in 1933 as an information bureau that informed Jewish communities and governments worldwide about the persecution of the Jews under the Nazis, it was transformed into a research institute and public access library after the end of World War II and is situated in Russell Square, London.

[2] In 2017, and following a campaign by Daniel Plesch (director of the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at SOAS University of London) and other researchers, directed at the UN,[3] the library published an online and searchable version of the catalogue of the archive of the UN War Crimes Commission.

[5] Alfred Wiener, a German Jew who worked for the Centralverein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens (Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Faith), a Jewish civil rights group, spent years documenting the rise of antisemitism.

He collected books, photographs, letters, magazines and other materials, including school primers and children's games,[6] recording the spread of Nazi propaganda and its racist doctrines.

[9] Wiener's wife Margarethe (née Saulmann) and three daughters Ruth, Eva, and Mirjam remained in the Netherlands and on 20 June 1943 were detained by the Nazis and sent to Westerbork transit camp.

Soon after, Ruth, Eva, and Mirjam boarded a Red Cross ship, the Gripsholm, bound for New York where they were reunited with their father.

Much of the artwork of Fred Kormis, creator of England's first Holocaust memorial, is being displayed at an exhibition at the library, scheduled to run until 6 February 2025.

The website is designed with the British school curriculum for thirteen to eighteen year olds in mind, but it aims to be accessible to other users as well.

It covers topics from the historical background of antisemitism through to the legacy of the Holocaust, drawing on the Library's unique archival materials to illustrate each section.