FAQs

The British government knew about large-scale massacres in the 'East' from a very early stage in the war. But this information had to be kept secret, or the Germans would have known that their secret codes had been broken, and the whole war effort might have been compromised.

Reports transmitted by the Polish government-in-exile and through neutral Switzerland gradually made the picture clear over the summer of 1942. On 17 December, the Allies issued a declaration that condemned the Nazi extermination policy and threatened the perpetrators with punishment after the war.

When in the spring of 1945 American, Commonwealth and French soldiers entered the camps in western Germany, newspaper stories, magazine articles, radio broadcasts and, in particular, newsreels reported horrific accounts of what had been uncovered.

There was a general feeling of revulsion at the appalling crimes committed by the Nazis and their associates. At this stage, however, few grasped the enormous scale of the extermination programme, or understood that the Jews had been singled out for total destruction.

The Unspeakable exhibition and website serve as an opportunity to see together the very different artistic perspectives encompassed in the Imperial War Museum's collection of art relating to the Nazi persecution of the Jews of Europe.

The information in the FAQ pages contextualises some of the experiences portrayed within the artworks, but is not by any means a complete historical account of the events which occurred in Nazi-occupied Europe.

For more information, please visit the website for Imperial War Museum London's The Holocaust Exhibition, where you can find information about the exhibition, survivors' testimonies and a list of links for further enquiry.