Holocaust Memorial Day

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD). Why teach about the Holocaust and other genocides today? Teaching about past atrocities and the historical conditions that gave rise to them is an important educational task and can help develop students’ understanding of our shared history and encourage them to challenge hatred, racism and discrimination in the here and now.

There is a long list of things we should be teaching our students about and there are many claims on the time available for the college tutorial and personal development curriculum. There is the potential to observe a range of commemorative days, weeks or months: Black history month, LGBTQ history month, Women’s history month, Islamophobia awareness month, and local history and ‘history from below’ projects.

In my view, the best way to do justice to all of these is as part of a coherent programme to provide a fuller and richer understanding of history which links to political and cultural literacy and human rights education in ways which help students connect past and present.

At Newham Sixth Form College, where I worked for 10 years until 2018, we developed a strong Holocaust Education programme which also covered the history of antisemitism and the roots of fascism. We addressed the particularities of antisemitism as well as the horrifying facts of industrial scale mass extermination of six million Jewish people. I can remember teaching these sessions and finding that students were both deeply shocked by what they were learning but also readily made connections with the contemporary context.

Holocaust Memorial Day is an opportunity to learn the lessons of the past and recognise that genocides do not come from nowhere – they start from systematic discrimination, racism, xenophobia, hatred and exclusion which can take hold if not called out and resisted.

27 January is also designated by the United Nations as an annual International Day of Commemoration to remember the 6 million Jews and the millions of others murdered during the Holocaust as a result of Nazi persecution. In 2025 this marks 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau by Soviet troops in 1945, and 30 years since the genocide in Bosnia.

HMD was first marked in 2000, when representatives from 46 countries signed a declaration committing to preserving the memory of all those murdered in the Holocaust. The statement commits us to ensuring that the Holocaust has a permanent place in our collective memory and to reaffirming our shared goals of mutual understanding and justice. We want future generations to understand the causes of the Holocaust and to reflect on its consequences.

25 years on, racism, xenophobia and discrimination persist, and people are still persecuted because of their race, religion, caste, disability or sexual orientation. Faced with the increase in antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-migrant hate speech and the persistence of Holocaust and genocide denial and trivialisation, silence cannot be an option.

As educators we have a particular responsibility to expose, condemn and resist prejudice, discrimination and racism and to make the case for a free, respectful and democratic society. This includes educating about the Holocaust and other genocides and to do everything we can to ensure that the lessons are learnt and shared.

Holding an HMD themed activity on or around 27 January, is an opportunity for everyone to remember those who were murdered because of who they were. The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust provides guidance on learning from the Holocaust and includes other subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

Each year thousands of HMD activities bring people together to learn lessons from the past in creative, reflective and inspiring ways, to honour the experiences of people affected by the Holocaust and other genocides and to challenge themselves to work for a safer, better future.

The Holocaust provided the impetus for the UN General Assembly to include a crime of genocide in international law in 1946. In 1948, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defined genocide as ‘any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group: killing or causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, inflicting conditions of life on the group calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.’

There is also a connection between Holocaust education and challenging anti-migrant prejudice. Many people affected by persecution and genocide, including the Holocaust, have rebuilt their lives in the UK after seeking sanctuary here, and they share a common experience of being a migrant, refugee or asylum seeker. HMD provides the platform for us to teach our shared humanity and encourage our solidarity with people fleeing from genocide, conflict or persecution.

80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, HMD is an opportunity for colleges to remember those who were murdered and to challenge those who advocate for hate, discrimination and persecution today as well as those who would distort or deny past or current genocides.

Marking HMD as part of a programme of educating against antisemitism, islamophobia and all forms of racism, xenophobia and hate is a concrete action we can take to help build a better future in which no one faces systemic prejudice or persecution because of their faith, ethnicity, sexual orientation or other characteristic.

Resources you may find useful:

Holocaust Memorial Day Trust

Learn about the Holocaust and genocides

The aims of HMD

Guidelines for teachers on HMD events

HMD resources for young people

What is genocide?

Reporting hate crimes: Report all hate crimes to the police and the relevant bodies (contact details below). In an emergency, always call 999.

• True Vision for racist hate crime, eg: those targeting Black, Asian or Roma people

• CST for reporting antisemitism (anti-Jewish hatred)

• Tell Mama for reporting anti-Muslim or Islamophobic attacks

Educate against Hate FE resources

Hope not Hate teaching resources

Show Racism the Red Card education hub

Eddie Playfair is a Senior Policy Manager at AoC, and worked in colleges for many years, including 16 years as a college principal in East London and in Leicester.