Commemorating UK Holocaust Memorial Day 2023 | Facing History & Ourselves
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Commemorating UK Holocaust Memorial Day 2023

Resources, activities and events to support you in commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day 2023: Ordinary People.

In the UK, Holocaust Memorial Day is commemorated on 27 January, the date on which the Red Army liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945.

This day is an important opportunity to commemorate the six million Jewish lives taken, alongside millions of others murdered by Nazi persecution, and to remember the victims of more recent genocides. 
Lord Mann’s recent report on Anti-Jewish Hatred has drawn attention to the concerning rise in antisemitic incidents across the UK and within schools. We are conscious of the critical importance of teaching about contemporary antisemitism in schools alongside Holocaust education, so that students can better understand how antisemitism manifests in today’s society and how they can play a role in challenging antisemitism, and all forms of racism and discrimination. For support in Discussing Antisemitism in the Classroom, please see our four-lesson unit for use in Religious Studies, PSHE, History and English lessons.  

The theme for this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day is Ordinary People, and we have a number of resources, activities and an assembly designed to support both specialist and non-specialist Key Stage 3 and 4 teachers to deliver Holocaust-related content in a safe and supportive learning environment.

In addition, our partner organisations have the following events which could be of interest: 

The Weiner Holocaust Library is holding an online panel event on 30 January entitled Responses of “Ordinary People” to Persecution, which will highlight new thinking and research about this theme, consider how Jews responded to the Nazi onslaught in the Warsaw Ghetto, and the various forms of protest and solidarity by “ordinary” Jews from Poland for Jews from Germany.

The National Literacy Trust will be hosting a conversation between award-winning author Tom Palmer and Holocaust survivor Mala Tribich on 27th January. The online event will be 45 minutes long and suitable for students aged 10-14 years old.

The Association of Jewish Refugees’ annual Holocaust Memorial Day service will be held on 23 January at Belsize Square Synagogue in London, and also available to watch online. At 1pm, Dr Bea Lewkowicz will present the stories of the four Slovak Jewish survivors in the AJR Refugee Voices Archive. The service will begin at 2pm and will include both the Czech and Slovak Ambassadors, Laurence Watson, grandson of Sir Nicholas Winton, and Lia Lesser, a Winton Child.

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