“We share a commitment to encourage the study of the Holocaust in all its dimensions. We will promote education about the Holocaust in our schools and universities, in our communities and encourage it in other institutions.”
– Article 5 of the Stockholm Declaration
Advancing Holocaust education worldwide
Holocaust education is a critical part of advancing a world that remembers the Holocaust, a world without genocide. The Holocaust can be a complex and difficult topic to teach about, however, and doing so in a way that is based in fact and encourages critical thinking is essential. The IHRA supports the development of educationally sound approaches to teaching about the Holocaust – for both students at school and professionals at work.
The IHRA’s Education Working Group
"We, the IHRA Member Countries, lead efforts to promote education, remembrance and research on the Holocaust and the genocide of the Roma to counter the influence of historical distortion, hate speech and incitement to violence and hatred."
– Article 8 of the 2020 IHRA Ministerial Declaration
Made up of international experts in pedagogy, the IHRA’s Education Working Group (EWG) encourages best practices around the commitments to advance Holocaust education that each IHRA Member Country makes when they commit to the Stockholm Declaration and the 2020 IHRA Ministerial Declaration.
In addition to leading research on teaching and learning about the Holocaust, the EWG has developed Recommendations to help guide educators and policymakers when they develop curricula and training programs.
Through the EWG, the IHRA has also led a series of successful professional development programs in Moldova, an Observer Country to the IHRA. These efforts have led to the development of an action plan by the government of Moldova on exhibitions, education, memorialization, and curricula about the Holocaust; and the commitment by the Ministry of Education in El Salvador to include – for the first time ever – education about the Holocaust in its national curriculum.
The current Chair of the IHRA’s Education Working Group is Andrea Szőnyi (Hungary).
