Tel Aviv University has confirmed that it has been selected to receive the Wiener Archives, said to be the world’s largest collection of material relating to Nazi war crimes and the Holocaust. The archives, established in Amsterdam in 1934 by Dr. Alfred Wiener, a Jewish Orientalist and community leader, was transferred from Holland to London in 1940 where it is presently located. Under terms of an agreement, it will be shipped to Israel in 1980. The trustees selected Tel Aviv University as its final repository.
The collection, founded as the Central Jewish Information Bureau, provided material used in preparing the Nuremberg war crimes trials. Dr. Wiener was a German-Jewish refugee who died in London. He started the library in Holland. The present director of the Wiener Library is Zeev Laquer, a professor of modern history at Tel Aviv University who spends some time in London every year.
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