Hundreds of schools sent books to counter myths over the Holocaust

HUNDREDS OF schools across England are to receive copies of a textbook on the Holocaust to help combat myths and misconceptions held by students.

Teachers are increasingly concerned about the levels of Holocaust denial, anti- Semitism, hate speech and extremism which young people are exposed to online, the book’s co- author said.

It is hoped the resource, which is being distributed to 1,000 English secondary schools, will counteract “destructive” influences of social media which teachers and anti- racism campaigners warn are becoming more widespread.

Professor Stuart Foster, executive director of the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education and co- author of the textbook, said teachers already find the Holocaust a difficult subject to teach.

He said: “If you Google ‘ Holocaust Education Lesson Plans’ you get so much and I think teachers really find it hard, quite understandably, to separate the wheat from the chaff, to try and understand what actually is reliable and trustworthy.”

He added that school staff were facing challenging conversations in the classroom with young people who have been exposed to inaccurate content about the Holocaust online.

Around 30,000 free copies of Understanding The Holocaust: How And Why Did It Happen? are being sent to state school teachers for students in Years 7 and 9.

It comes after a survey from anti- racism group Hope Not Hate found that 15 per cent of 16 to 24- year- olds thought that the official account of the Holocaust was a lie and the number of Jewish people killed by the Nazis during the Second World War “had been exaggerated on purpose”.