UCL marks Holocaust Memorial Day

Holocaust Memorial Day commemorates the millions of Jewish people who were murdered during the Holocaust as well as all the victims of Nazi persecution and subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. 27 January also marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.

Ruth-Anne Lenga, Programme Director of the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education, said: "For many years Holocaust survivors have given talks to PGCE and master's students at UCL's Institute of Education but today is the first time we have held a remembrance service at our Centre. Commemorations for the Holocaust are taking place in schools and universities across the country today and these are vital in the pursuit to 'Never Forget'.

"Our research however, has shown that young people sometimes lack critical knowledge about the Holocaust and tend to draw on unexamined misconceptions in their attempts to make sense of what took place. We are committed to developing teachers' knowledge and understanding of the Holocaust so they have the pedagogic tools and robustness to handle this deeply difficult yet important history with their students. A fundamental imperative for what it means to be educated in the 21st Century must be to know and understand what took place during the Holocaust."

The Centre for Holocaust Education is the UK's leading provider of research, innovation and teacher development in Holocaust education, rated world class in the Research Excellency Framework 2014. It offers a wide ranging, research-based Holocaust educational programme, working with over 1,500 trainee and qualified teachers each year. More than 6,500 teachers have taken part in the programme since  2008. The Centre recently undertook the largest ever national study of children's understanding of the Holocaust: 'What do students know and understand about the Holocaust?'.

Image

• The Bergen-Belsen memorial - the camp that Mala Tribich MBE was liberated from. (Credit: Phrontis via Wikimedia Commons)

Links

• Study:'What do students know and understand about the Holocaust?' (PDF)
• UCL Centre for Holocaust Education