Ms Bardgett added that during Holocaust Memorial week this rose to around 2,000 per day.

She said: "We were wary whether people would come to such a dark and demanding exhibition which portrays such a terrible sense of oppression through pictures, artefacts, maps and quotes."

The record number of visitors to the exhibition, she said, vindicated the original decision to stage the exhibition within the London-based museum rather than in a separate location.

Ms Bardgett said she had been worried how Holocaust survivors would react to the exhibition, which opened in 2000 after five years of careful planning. But she said that survivors who had met the Queen at the exhibition's opening ceremony claimed it told their story well.

Ms Bardgett revealed that, for conservation reasons, exhibits had to be constantly rotated.

Artefacts could fade if exposed for too long.

Therefore the exhibition was constantly seeking new material.

She said: "We are taking advantage of this decade to gain original material from survivors."

Ms Bardgett was introduced by AJR director Michael Newman and thanked by Dr Peter Kurer.

Almost 70 AJR members from Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Sheffield, Blackpool, York and Hebden Bridge enjoyed workshops on Second Generation, spouses of refugees and survivors, Jews in the media, legacy, hometown visits, recipes and present-day coping.