Major review sets out roadmap for future of Holocaust education in Britain

More than 123,000 people have been reached by Holocaust education and remembrance projects funded by the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) since 2023, according to a major review unveiled at a gathering of leading sector organisations.

The landmark report, ‘What’s Next for Holocaust Education, Research and Remembrance in the UK?’ was commissioned by the AJR, the UK’s leading dedicated funder of Holocaust education, and compiled by Ben Barkow, former director of the Wiener Holocaust Library, and independent education consultant Clementine Smith.

It draws on fifty expert interviews representing more than twenty-five organisations, analysis of AJR-funded projects, a cross-sector focus group and a practitioner survey.

The findings were unveiled at AJR’s two-day forum at Holocaust Centre North, University of Huddersfield, where figures from Holocaust education, academia, government, and the wider remembrance sector considered how to turn them into action.

In a message to the conference, Prime Minister Andy Burnham praised AJR’s leadership in bringing the sector together at a critical time for Holocaust education and remembrance. He said: “I am grateful to the Association of Jewish Refugees and its partners for bringing together such a distinguished gathering to share expertise and consider the challenges facing Holocaust education and remembrance today.”

The report examines teaching after 7 October 2023, innovation, links between academic research and classroom practice, and government’s role in promoting Holocaust memory. Contributors included academics, educators, AJR and other UK Holocaust education specialists, Huddersfield MP Harpreet Uppal, and Sally Sealey, Head of Secretariat at the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation.

Alex Maws, AJR’s head of education and heritage, said: “The question is no longer whether good Holocaust education is taking place – this report shows emphatically that it is. The challenge is how, as a sector, we can demonstrate the difference it makes and ensure that expertise and resources reach the places its needed most.”

He noted that at a time of rising antisemitism, rapidly changing technology, and the dwindling of the survivor generation, “we cannot afford to work in silos” and AJR wants “to bring organisations together, share what works and build a stronger evidence base for the sector. This is not about telling individual organisations how to work but identifying where cooperation can make us stronger and increase the impact of Holocaust education across the UK.”

Recommendations include mapping Holocaust education across Britain to identify geographical ‘cold spots’; developing shared measures of reach and impact; providing monitoring and evaluation support to AJR grantees; publishing an annual cross-sector insight report; and continuing dialogue between Holocaust organisations and academics on shared priorities and emerging challenges.

Report co-author Ben Barkow said: “The UK has developed an impressive and diverse landscape of Holocaust education, research and remembrance. But the challenges facing it are changing rapidly. Greater cooperation offers an opportunity to reduce duplication, make limited resources work harder and develop shared priorities while retaining the distinctive expertise and independence of individual organisations.”

The report also identifies inequalities in access to high-quality Holocaust education. Anecdotal evidence suggests that remote, rural, and coastal communities may have poorer provision, although further work is needed to establish the extent and causes.

Co-author Clementine Smith added: “The scale of activity and engagement demonstrated through AJR-funded programmes is hugely encouraging. The opportunity now is to build on that strength by becoming clearer about the changes we want our work to achieve and more consistent about how we measure them.”