Cardiff, Jewish refugees and the Holocaust – a walking tour

Discover the powerful and often overlooked stories of Jewish refugees who reshaped Cardiff.

Join historian Martin Winstone for a fascinating two-hour walking tour through Cardiff city centre exploring sites connected to the history of Jewish refugees and Wales’s wider relationship with the Holocaust. Through powerful stories and surprising historical connections, the tour reveals how refugees fleeing Nazism found refuge in Cardiff and went on to leave a lasting mark on the city.

Along the way, you’ll uncover lesser-known chapters of history, including:

• The experiences of Jewish refugees who rebuilt their lives in Cardiff
• The significant impact these individuals had on the city’s cultural and economic life
• Cardiff and south Wales’s role in the history of British antisemitism
• An unexpected connection between the 1958 Commonwealth Games and the Holocaust
• The story of the only Welsh-born victim of the Holocaust

The tour concludes at the beloved Wally’s Kaffeehaus, opened in 1947 by Austrian Jewish refugee Ignatz Salamon. Today run by his grandson Steven, the café remains a living legacy of refugee resilience. Participants will enjoy kaffee & kuchen while hearing the remarkable story behind this Cardiff institution.

Tickets: £15 per person (includes kaffee & kuchen)

This event is presented by the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) — the UK’s largest community of Holocaust refugees and their descendants since 1941. Learn more about the organisation and its work at https://ajr.org.uk.