This week I signed the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Book of Commitment. I pledged my commitment to Holocaust Memorial Day and to honour those who were murdered during the Holocaust as well as paying tribute to the extraordinary Holocaust survivors who work tirelessly to educate young people today.
This year we are marking 77 years since the liberation of the concentration camps of Europe and the end of the Second World War. On the 27th January, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, people across the globe will remember.
After signing the Book of Commitment, Sir Robert Goodwill commented:
“Holocaust Memorial Day is an important opportunity for people from Scarborough and Whitby to reflect on the darkest times of European history. As the Holocaust moves from living history, to history, it becomes ever more important that we take the time to remember the six million Jewish victims and also pay tribute to the survivors.”
About the Holocaust Educational Trust
The Holocaust Educational Trust was founded in 1988. Our mission is to raise awareness and understanding in schools and amongst the wider public of the Holocaust and its relevance today. It is our belief that the Holocaust must have a permanent place in our nation’s collective memory.
One of the Trust’s earliest achievements was to ensure that the Holocaust was included in the National Curriculum for England in 1991 – for Key Stage 3 students (11-14 year olds). The Holocaust has remained on the National Curriculum since then. We also successfully campaigned to have the assets of Holocaust victims and survivors released and returned to their rightful owners in the late 1990s.
Since 1999 the Trust’s Lessons from Auschwitz Project has given over 41,000 post-16 students and teachers the opportunity to visit the Nazi concentration and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, as part of a four-part educational programme. Since 2008 the Project has received Government funding.
Having played a crucial role in the establishment of Holocaust Memorial Day in the UK in 2001, the Trust continues to play a key role in the delivery of this national commemorative day.
At the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Appeal Dinner in September 2013, the Prime Minister announced the establishment of a national Holocaust Commission to establish what further measures should be taken to ensure a lasting memorial to the Holocaust in this country. In January 2015, the Prime Minister, with cross-party support, endorsed the Commission’s recommendations, which include a striking new national memorial and accompanying learning centre.
In July 2017, the Holocaust Educational Trust supported a visit to the former Nazi concentration camp Stutthof by Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, where they met with survivors of the camp Zigi Shipper BEM and Manfred Goldberg BEM. This high-profile initiative helped to shine a spotlight on the importance of ensuring that the Holocaust is never forgotten.
In 2020, the Trust and UCL Centre for Holocaust Studies, with support from the National Holocaust Centre and Museum, and funding from the Department for Education launched Belsen75 – a commemorative and educational project allowing young people to mark the anniversary of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen by British forces on 15th April.
In March 2020, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trust suspended all overseas projects and in-person educational programmes. Since then we have adapted our work by facilitating online sessions so that survivors can continue to share their testimony through video calls, creating specialist home learning resources for teachers and families to use remotely, and using the latest in digital technologies to explore sites of the Holocaust.
Through our work we are enabling young people to understand the past and empowering them to stand up against antisemitism, prejudice and hatred in all its forms, to shape a more positive future. Today, our work is more vital than ever. In an increasingly fragile world and a volatile political climate here and abroad, it is so important that we work to educate young people about the Holocaust and its contemporary relevance.
About Holocaust Memorial Day
Holocaust Memorial Day was established following an MP’s visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau with the Holocaust Educational Trust. Moved by his visit, Andrew Dismore MP proposed a bill, “to introduce a day to learn and remember the Holocaust” on 30 June 1999.
The Holocaust Educational Trust has been closely involved in the establishment and development of Holocaust Memorial Day since its inception in 2000. The theme for the UK Holocaust Memorial Day 2020 is ‘One Day’.
