Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) is a national commemoration day in the UK dedicated to the remembrance of those who suffered in The Holocaust under Nazi persecution and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. This Holocaust Memorial Day marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration camp complex, and the 30th anniversary of the genocide in Bosnia.
80 years on from the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, antisemitism (anti-Jewish hatred) has increased significantly in the UK and globally following the 7 October attacks in Israel by Hamas and the subsequent war in Gaza. Extremists are exploiting the situation to stir up anti-Muslim hatred in the UK. Many UK communities are feeling vulnerable, with hostility and suspicion of others rising. Holocaust Memorial Day 2025 can be an opportunity for people to come together, learn both from and about the past and take action to make a better future for all.
This year's theme is 'For a Better Future'.
'I hope by sharing my experiences people can better understand how inflicting suffering on one another benefits nobody, and instead find ways to reach out and open our hearts. I believe education, especially for ourchildren, is key to renouncing hate and prejudice whenever we encounter it and to break down the barriers that may exist between us.’
Helen Aronsen
Helen was only twelve years old when the German army arrived at her home. She was one of around only 750 people to be liberated from the Łódź Ghetto, out of 250,000 people sent there. Her mother and brother survived with her, but her father was murdered at Chełmno.
Today she shares her experiences with school children to ensure as many people as possible can learn from the past, for a better future:
Remember for a better future
Whole families and whole communities were wiped out in the Holocaust, and in many cases, we don’t even know the names of those murdered. David Berger was born in Przemysl, south-east Poland. He left his hometown when the Germans invaded in 1939, and was shot dead in Vilnius, Lithuania two years later. It is estimated that he was 22 years old when he was murdered. Before he was murdered in the Holocaust he wrote:
'If something happens, I would want there to be somebody who would remember that someone named D. Berger had once lived. This will make things easier for me in the difficult moments.'
Whilst David’s life was taken from him, we can honour his memory and remember him. Remember for a better future.
This Holocaust Memorial Day, we all have an opportunity to take action for a better future.
A better future where people are not suffering prejudice or persecution because of their faith, ethnicity or other characteristic.
Holding an event, activity or exhibition on Holocaust Memorial Day brings your community, your group, your class, your friends together. This enables people of all backgrounds to remember those who were murdered because of who they were, to learn from genocide and to commit to take further action for a better future.
If you are planning on completing your own Holocaust Memorial Day activities, there are many ways to get involved:
- Download the Key Stage 2 assembly resource
- Use the Make a Memorial Flame Display resource and other craft activities, using readily available and low-cost materials
- Explore case studies of people affected by the Holocaust and genocides who took action to make a change, and plan your own social action by accessing the Take Action activity
- Use the Easy to real life stories, which provide an accessible way for younger students to understand the experiences of people affected by genocide
- Design and create a candleholder as part of a special nationwide arts and education project celebrating 80 candles for 80 years
- Or access the full resource range here
Let the Holocaust memorial trust know how you are marking Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) 2025 by submitting your activity, event or other commemoration onto the online activity map.
There is even a Secondary School Competiton to learn about the 30th anniversary of the genocide in Bosnia and mark it by designing a memorial. There will be awarded prizes to the top 10 memorial designs and they will be shared on social media and at the Holocaust Memorial Day 2025 UK Ceremony in January. All memorial designs must be submitted digitally either as a scan or a high-quality photograph.
LGfL has produced a range of unique resources with partners to support the delivery of Holocaust Education these can be found here.
(N.B Some of the resources feature some content which some learners may find upsetting given the nature of the topic, so Educators are advised to study the content in advance of using or signposting the resource to learners).
The Holocaust Explained - Produced originally in partnership with the London Jewish Cultural Centre but now managed by the Wiener Library, this website features a large range of media resources, historical documents and graphical representations of a wide range of aspects of the Holocaust; the site has over 500 webpages, 1000 media assets, a glossary of 720 terms and 11 oral testimonies created to help learners understand the essential facts of the Holocaust, its causes and its consequences. We aim to answer questions that people most often want to ask in an accessible, reliable and engaging way. Designed with the British school curriculum in mind, our content is organised across nine clearly defined and easy-to-navigate topic areas.
Exploring Holocaust Art - resources to support those students studying GCSE History and Art & Design and Holocaust studies. The resource can help students to ‘deconstruct’ artworks and include ideas for further thought and discussion, as well as some practical starting points for the creation of students' own visual artwork.
Documenting the Holocaust - The Wiener Library is one of the world's leading and most extensive archives on the Holocaust and the Nazi era. LGfL has been given unique access to the collection for this powerful resource suitable for Key Stages 2-5 PSHE, Citizenship, History and R.E. It features unique examples of how the Nazis documented and manipulated the truth to influence how people felt towards Jewish people and led to their persecution.
The M-Room - Finding Out About Atrocities - LGfL's unique resource that features access to secret World War II listening sites where the British Secret Service bugged high-ranking German Military prisoners. It was through these discoveries that the British Government first heard of the Nazi mistreatment and what became known as the Holocaust.
Michael Morpurgo Interview Extract (on the home page) - Michael eloquently explains the lasting damage that war creates within families, communities and societies as a whole and why he writes about the theme so frequently in his books.
A Personal Experience as a Kindertransportee - an amazing interview with a Kindertransportee, Bertha Leviton, filmed as part of the Barnet LA School Migration Project. The interview captures the life story of such people and the experiences they lived through are an important part of the collective history in the UK. Many Kindertransportees ended up receiving widespread recognition for their subsequent achievements in Britain. These refugee contributions to British society resonate as much today as when the interview was first filmed in 2006.
If you are ever passing by Liverpool Street station you will see a memorial dedicated to the children of the kindertransport. See image below:
Holocaust Education through the Ben Uri Art Collection: A resource designed to support GCSE History and Art and Design research into Holocaust art, the resources help to ‘deconstruct’ artworks from the Ben Uri Gallery and the London Jewish Cultural Centre. The expert teacher support is some of the finest available from LGfL.
The Cold War: The resources span borders, ideologies and even realities; interviewing spies, journalists and dissidents; visiting prisons, concentration camps, and museums; filming underground, above ground and from the air; and uncovering documents, images and secrets never before revealed. Although the resource focuses on post-second World War tensions between the Superpowers, there are sections that link to the topic and the influence the Holocaust had on subsequent post-war events.
Other recommended (free) resources you can access:
Michael Rosen has recorded a series of powerful poems about the experiences of his family in the Holocaust which you can use to inspire your students.
A selection of resources based around "War and Peace" from the Literacy Shed. These would be worth watching particularly if you are completing a more lengthy topic around war and peace (and not just HMD).
Read the following blog ('The Problem with ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’) about making responsible choices when choosing historical narratives and ensuring that pupils know that sometimes authors include historically inaccurate events in their narratives. It highlights an important message to critically assess our choices for class novels and also to ensure we discuss with our pupils where narratives do not always stay true to the facts of the time.
As teachers, it is vital that we continue to pay our respect to the victims of the Holocaust by continuing to sensitively pass on the memories of the past, and to try and prepare our pupils for a better future. We hope that our resources will support you with this important endeavour.
Please let us know the impact the resources have had on your pupils and colleagues or indeed suggestions for what else you would like to see from LGfL by posting on LGfL’s X or Facebook.
for #HolocaustMemorialDay
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This blog has been edited from a previous blog post for HMD.