Holocaust education gets £17 million boost

HOLOCAUST EDUCATION got a £1.7 million funding boost in the Autumn Budget.

The money is earmarked for co-ordinating Holocaust survivors’ visits to schools across the UK, and for visits to concentration camps.

The JC understands from a Whitehall source that the Department for Education will distribute the £1.7 million for projects to be delivered by the Holocaust Educational Trust.

Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: “This year we have seen an unprecedented level of antisemitism across the UK. We are delighted to be working with the Department for Education and Her Majesty’s Treasury to develop plans to address this issue head on, through education.

“With government support we will create a generation of advocates for history, an army of young people from every background, ready to stand up and speak out against hatred.” Marie van der Zyl, the

Pleased: Pollock President of the Board of Deputies, said that the funding boost “will help a new generation to learn about the suffering of the past”.

It has been suggested that the funding boost is related to a recent spike in reported antisemitic crimes.

The latest Home Office figures showed that there were 672 reports of religious hate crimes directed towards Jews in 2017/18, which represented 12 per cent of all religious hate crimes.

The Community Security Trust (CST) has also reported that 1,382 antisemitic incidents took place in 2017 — the highest ever for a calendar year.

Olivia Marks-Woldman, the chief executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, said: “We are deeply concerned about the rise in reported incidents of antisemitism in the UK, and we are seeing an appalling level of Holocaust denial.

“In 2020, HMD will mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and we must take this opportunity to come together, learning from genocide to create a better future.”

In England, the Holocaust is already part of the Key Stage 3 History curriculum, the only historical event whose study is compulsory on the National Curriculum.

The government has already committed £50m to support the UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre, and confirmed a permanent Shoah memorial will be built next to Parliament.