Permanent
IWM London
Everyone
Free exhibition
IWM London’s Second World War Galleries display over 1,500 collection items that bring to life a war which affected millions of people from around the world, from London to Russia, to New Zealand, to China and the Philippines.
It is a war with which everyone will have a personal connection.
Dedicated to conserving, displaying and interpreting stories of the most devastating conflict in human history, IWM London is the first museum in the world to house Second World War Galleries and The Holocaust Galleries under the same roof. These galleries will change the way we understand the past for generations to come.
Spanning two floors, these vast, award-winning galleries bring together the stories of real people from diverse communities to examine the complex relationship between the Holocaust and the course and consequences of the Second World War.
2022 winner of the 'Museum + Heritage' Permanent Exhibition of the Year.
Personal stories
The Second World War will soon pass out of living memory, leaving us without the first-hand testimony of veterans, eyewitnesses and survivors. IWM’s Second World War Galleries preserve their stories and ensure the world never forgets what they experienced.
The galleries bring together significant acquisitions and loans, alongside items from IWM’s collections, including the first piece of wreckage of the USS Arizona, sunk at Pearl Harbor in 1941, ever to be displayed outside of the United States.
Unseen objects, untold stories, unheard voices
Through these unseen objects, untold stories and unheard voices, together with the newest research and technology, gain an understanding about the most devastating conflict in modern global history and the genocide of the Holocaust.
