Holocaust Learning UK says post-7 October antisemitism caused school engagement drop

Holocaust Learning UK has revealed that rising antisemitism and Holocaust distortion following Hamas’ 7 October attacks led to an initial sharp fall in student engagement with its educational films, before a significant recovery this academic year.

Speaking at the charity’s annual event at JW3 in north London, chair Sue Krasner said viewings dropped by around 20 percent in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.

“Like many in this sector, we struggled in the atmosphere of Holocaust denial, distortion, and antisemitism that prevailed after 7 October,” she said.

She told the audience that numbers have since rebounded strongly.

“This academic year to date, well over 50,000 students have viewed our films, bringing our overall total to close on 300,000 students.”

The evening, themed “Keeping Holocaust Education Alive”, included a screening of the organisation’s 15-minute assembly film, designed for schools where it may be the only Holocaust education pupils receive.

Introducing the film, Krasner said it was created to deliver “the essential facts of the Holocaust in a testimony-based, accurate, memorable, and meaningful way”.

The film draws on testimony from survivors, including Steven Frank, Susan Pollack, Manfred Goldberg, Hannah Lewis, Mala Tribich and Peter Lantos, tracing the escalation of Nazi persecution through personal stories of ghettoisation, deportation and survival.

Headteacher Sylvia Tai of Watford Grammar School for Girls told the event that Holocaust education is essential in helping young people understand how prejudice develops.

Reflecting on a visit to Poland, she said: “I learned at that moment that hatred can actually be very ordinary.”

She warned that without active engagement, students risk becoming passive observers: “It is only through active engagement in Holocaust education that students will learn where unchallenged hatred can lead.”

Year 12 student Katie Peris said hearing survivor testimony had transformed her understanding of the Holocaust.

“Behind every fact or number is a person, a family, and a life that was stolen,” she said.

“Learning through testimony brings home the emotional impact on the survivors in a way that statistics and textbooks never really can.”

Holocaust survivor Peter Lantos, who was imprisoned in Bergen-Belsen, shared his personal story of loss.

“My father died there of starvation… we realised that 21 members of my family perished in the Holocaust,” he said.

He also challenged misconceptions about the Shoah, describing it as both a process and a uniquely targeted attempt to destroy European Jewry.

Alex Maws, head of education and heritage at the Association of Jewish Refugees, urged educators to remain focused on that specificity.

“We should teach about the Holocaust because it happened… those six million people were not murdered as units of tolerance… they were murdered as Jews,” he said.

Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland warned that Holocaust education is increasingly under threat from misinformation and a “post-truth” culture.

“Holocaust learning is simultaneously more necessary than ever, but also more vulnerable than ever,” he said.

“We are in the post-truth era… you have just a cacophony of voices of people pumping out any old garbage, any old lies.”

He linked this to wider global instability, adding: “I don’t think it is a coincidence that this fraying… of the world order happened at exactly the point of a human lifespan after the Holocaust.”

The event also marked the launch of a new classroom resource – a library of 50 short, testimony-based video clips designed to help teachers integrate survivor voices into lessons.

Organisers said the films would support those schools where Holocaust education otherwise risks becoming a “tick-box exercise”.

Closing the evening, speakers stressed the role of education in responding to rising antisemitism.

“We believe that education is a part of the answer,” attendees were told.

Donations to support Holocaust Learning UK’s work can be made via the charity’s website