Holocaust education sector needs substantial digital investment, new report says

Global Holocaust education organisations are not sufficiently digitally prepared to future-proof memories of the Shoah, with staff shortages and lack of training the most challenging factors, according to a new report.

In 2025, international research hub The Landecker Digital Memory Lab, based at the University of Sussex, surveyed 127 institutions across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Australia.

Respondents included some of the world’s largest organisations in the field of Holocaust memory and education through to small, volunteer-run outfits, with no physical building. Names are not being publicised in keeping with research ethics.

The full report, however, covers areas including digital staff, social media, use of AI (artificial intelligence) significant digital projects, discontinued digital projects and digital challenges.

Research found that by far the biggest challenge facing the sector is suitable staffing to combat online Holocaust disinformation and distortion; 42.52% of surveyed organisations have less than one full-time equivalent staff member committed to the ‘digital’ space.

Almost half (47.25%) of organisations that encountered hostile content in the past
reported an increase since 7 October 2023; additionally, 80.31% do not have a written digital strategy and funding remains a major issue across the board.

The survey found there is an emerging ethical gap regarding AI. Whilst Holocaust organisations are speaking out about public misuse of the technology towards the Holocaust, some organisations have no AI strategy or policy, and staff using AI software in their day-to-day work, potentially feed sensitive historical material into training models. Where AI is introduced, those organisations found they faced more technical challenges than those not using it.

Director of the Landecker Digital Memory Lab, Prof. Victoria Grace Richardson-Walden, said: “This report should be read by every policymaker, museum and memorial site leader, and senior management and board members of funding bodies – there is a need for urgent change in how digital work in this field is supported. We called for this previously in our working paper published by the United Nations, but alas we still see no significant movement.”

She added: “Governments keep shouting about the shocking rise in antisemitism and Holocaust distortion – memorials and museums are often targets of this. So much of this hate is nurtured online, yet the professionals who are guardians of the vast range of historical sources which resist these narratives and provide historical fact and nuance are not supported with the funding and resources they need to be properly visible in the digital age.”

Richardson-Walden says the Shoah is “increasingly being discussed as no longer relevant in public discourse and distorted; most worrying, however, it is also being outright celebrated” and calls on governments, funding bodies, boards of trustees and senior management of museums and memorials “to engage in coordinated, global digital strategy, with the appropriate investment.”

The Landecker Digital Memory Lab was established in November 2024 to urgently tackle increased Holocaust denial and distortion perpetuated by AI.