Holocaust Shoes Exhibition Installed at Heart of UK Parliament

A Holocaust remembrance exhibition featuring replicas of shoes belonging to victims of the Holcoaust has been installed at the heart of the UK Parliament, confronting lawmakers, staff, and visitors as a reminder of Jewish loss during the Holocaust

The exhibition, called In Their Footsteps, is on display in the main hall of Portcullis House, one of Parliament’s most heavily trafficked spaces. The installation coincides with Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations and was placed at Westminster following encouragement from Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle.

The display features rows of ceramic shoes, laid out to represent the people who once wore them and never returned. Positioned at the centre of Portcullis House, the exhibition is encountered as part of everyday parliamentary life rather than as a separate memorial.

Speaking at a reception marking the installation, MP Sarah Sackman said the exhibition had noticeably changed the atmosphere inside the building. “As people walk past the ‘In Their Footsteps’ exhibition, they suddenly stop to pause for thought. They stop dead in their tracks, confronted by something very poignant, very moving, and very resonant,” she said.

Sackman said the exhibition’s message remains relevant today, pointing to rising antisemitism in the UK and around the world. “The rise in antisemitism, around the world and in this country, is a stark reminder that the work of Holocaust educators is far from finished,” she said.

The exhibition was created by ceramicist Jenny Stolzenberg, who began the project in memory of her father, Bill Powell, born Wilhelm Pollak, a Jewish refugee from Vienna. Pollak was imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps of Dachau and Buchenwald before arriving in Britain in 1939. Stolzenberg later described the project as the conversation she and her father were never able to have. 

Following Stolzenberg’s death, the Holocaust education charity Learning from the Righteous took responsibility for the project. Since then, the charity has brought the exhibition into schools across the UK, using the shoes to help students connect with the human stories behind the Holocaust.

Anthony Lishak, the charity’s CEO, said the approach helps students grasp the scale of loss through individual stories. “Shoes provide a visceral point of connection to a subject that is far too vast to fully comprehend,” he said. Lishak recalled one student telling him, “It’s impossible to look at a shoe and not think about the person who wore it.”

The charity plans to expand the exhibition’s reach using 3D printing to create replica shoes for display in town halls, libraries, and cultural centers across the UK.