UK Holocaust museum goes global with Google partnership
Nottinghamshire institution brings Holocaust education online, expanding access to Jewish history and testimony worldwide
The UK’s only dedicated Holocaust museum has launched a major global initiative with Google Arts & Culture, making its collections and exhibitions accessible to audiences around the world.
The National Holocaust Museum, based in Nottinghamshire, has joined more than 2,000 cultural institutions on the platform, placing it alongside leading names such as the British Museum and the Guggenheim Museum.
Hundreds of artefacts from the museum’s collection have been digitised in high resolution, allowing users to explore items up close with detailed context and archival information. The project also includes a series of curated online exhibitions inspired by the museum’s educational programmes, designed to encourage discussion around themes such as identity, displacement and Jewish life.
Visitors can now take virtual tours of the museum site using Street View technology, navigating key spaces including the Memorial Gardens and its permanent exhibitions. Among them is the redeveloped Journey Exhibition, which follows the story of a young Jewish boy escaping Nazi Germany, now fully accessible online for the first time.
Museum leaders said the move marks a significant step in widening access to Holocaust education beyond its rural location, opening up previously unseen materials from its archives to a global audience.
Prof. Maiken Umbach, Chief Academic Advisor & Innovation Officer at the museum, said: “This project is a brilliant example of what a combination of curatorial and educational expertise with modern technology can achieve. Google Arts & Culture brings users, quite literally, up close with amazing original artefacts, documents, and artworks. But our new platform is more than just a showcase. It is about storytelling, about topics such as ‘Becoming a Refugee’ or ‘Being Jewish’. These stories do not just offer answers. More importantly, they raise new questions. And we hope they will inspire open conversations among all those who use them, around the globe, among friends, families, and fellow students. There is no better way of learning than having a thoughtful conversation.”
Abi Levitt, interim director of the museum, said the partnership would “significantly expand access” at a critical moment for Holocaust education.
“We are delighted to partner with Google Arts & Culture to share our collections and stories with a truly global audience,” she said. “This collaboration allows us to stand alongside some of the world’s leading cultural institutions and significantly expand access to Holocaust education at a time when it has never been more important.”
Adam Dawson MBE, chairman of the museum, described the initiative as “transformative”, adding that taking its stories online was both an opportunity and a responsibility.
The launch comes amid growing concern over declining survivor numbers and the challenge of preserving testimony for future generations, with digital access increasingly seen as key to keeping Holocaust memory alive.
The museum’s dedicated page on Google Arts & Culture is now live.
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