This article is about the British charity established in 1988. For the unrelated U.S. organisation established in 1976, see Holocaust Educational Foundation.
The Holocaust Educational Trust (HET) is a British charity, based in London, whose aim is to "educate young people of every background about the Holocaust and the important lessons to be learned for today."[1]
The charity changed its logo in 2008. It celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2018.
Work
HET Logo Prior to 2008
Under its Outreach Programme, the HET arranges visits to schools by Holocaust survivors, often accompanied by one of its own educators.[4]:6 The trust helps several hundred teachers a year to teach more effectively about the Holocaust, including both PGCE students and practising teachers.[4]:7 The trust organises an annual intensive ten-day course in Israel for teachers, in partnership with the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem.[4]:15–17
Lessons from Auschwitz Project
The Trust arranges visits to Auschwitz-Birkenau, by UK region, for two sixth-form students from participating schools and colleges. Around 150 students take part in one project at any time. A Guardian reporter who accompanied such a visit in 1999 wrote:
Trust members knew from experience, both personal and from the teachers' trip to Auschwitz earlier this year, that this visit would be tough... Seeing one horrendous exhibit after another was relentless and exhausting – many of us ended up numb, stunned, freezing cold. Then we felt awful – how dare we find it too much after a few hours?[5]
In 2006, more than 400 students made such visits.[4]:8–9 This project is supported by a £1.5million grant from the Treasury, enabling two students from every secondary school and further education college in Britain to visit Auschwitz each year. The project involves four stages:
An Outreach seminar, where participants hear a first-hand testimony of a Holocaust survivor
A one-day trip to the former concentration and death camp, Auschwitz
A Follow-Up seminar, where participants reflect on their experience at the camp and begin to plan the final stage of the project
The Next Steps Project, whereby the two participants create their own project to share with their school or local community to pass on the lessons they have learned from visiting Auschwitz.
On 18 October 2012, the Holocaust Educational Trust marked its 100th Lessons from Auschwitz project trip. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg was among those in attendance.[6]
On 2 May 2013, the Scottish government announced that it will provide £510,000 of additional funding for the Lessons from Auschwitz project over the next two years.[7]
HET Ambassador Programme
HET Ambassador Conference 2013 Logo
On 8 July 2013, a groundbreaking seminar for over 500 young people was held in the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London to mark the launch of the new Ambassador Programme.[8][9] The Trust's Chief Executive, Karen Pollock, describes HET Ambassadors as "young people that have shown a commitment to enabling as many people as possible to benefit from what they have learnt."[citation needed]
The 500 young Ambassadors – who have all participated in the Trust's Lessons from Auschwitz Project – bore witness to speakers including world-renowned historians, Professors Yehuda Bauer and David Cesarani, BBC Political Editor, Nick Robinson and Director of Liberty, Shami ChakrabartiCBE.[8]
As part of the Ambassador Programme, a cohort of 25 Regional Ambassadors (coinciding with the charity's 25th anniversary) were appointed to help strengthen the now 20,000 strong Ambassador community by providing an Ambassador representative for each region in addition to the Trust's Ambassador Outreach Officer. This has secured a visible presence of HET Ambassadors all across the United Kingdom, covering the regions of England (South West, South East, London and Thames Valley Chilterns, Eastern, Yorkshire and Humber and North West, East Midlands, North East, West Midlands), Scotland and Wales.[10]
On the eve of 8 July 2013, after the Ambassador Conference, Regional Ambassadors attended a reception in Speaker's House in the Palace of Westminster, along with MPs, Peers and Supporters of the Trust, to celebrate the launch of the Ambassador Programme. Attendees heard from the Rt. Hon John Bercow MP and Lord Browne of Madingley, the former Chief Executive of BP and head of the Ambassador Programme.[11] Lord Browne also chaired a steering group with Regional Ambassadors on 9 July 2013 along with Doreen LawrenceOBE, Prof. Yehuda Bauer and Holocaust survivor, Kitty Hart-Moxon, discussing "why and how we remember the Holocaust and how we can communicate its relevance in contemporary British society."[8]
Between 18 and 26 July 2013, for the first time, a select team of young people belonging to the HET Ambassador community attended a seminar in Holocaust Studies at the International School for Holocaust Studies at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.[12]
British Hero of the Holocaust award
From 2008, the Trust campaigned to have British people such as Frank Foley, who had assisted in the rescue of Holocaust victims, posthumously recognised with official British Honours. The Government created the British Hero of the Holocaust medal, awarding it in March 2010 to 25 people posthumously, as well as to Sir Nicholas Winton and Denis Avey.[13]
Nazi Germany used six extermination camps, also called death camps (Todeslager), or killing centers (Tötungszentren), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million people – mostly Jews – in the Holocaust. The victims of death camps were primarily killed by gassing, either in permanent installations constructed for this specific purpose, or by means of gas vans. The six extermination camps were Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Auschwitz and Majdanek death camps also used extermination through labour in order to kill their prisoners.
Holocaust Memorial Day is a national commemoration day in the United Kingdom dedicated to the remembrance of the Jews and others who suffered in the Holocaust, under Nazi persecution. It was first held in January 2001 and has been on the same date every year since. The chosen date is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp by the Soviet Union in 1945, the date also chosen for the International Holocaust Remembrance Day and some other national Holocaust Memorial Days.
The Prince's Trust is a charity in the United Kingdom founded in 1976 by Charles, Prince of Wales, to help vulnerable young people get their lives on track. It supports 11 to 30-year-olds who are unemployed and those struggling at school and at risk of exclusion. Many of the young people helped by The Trust are in or leaving care, facing issues such as homelessness or mental health problems, or have been in trouble with the law.
Gedenkdienst is the concept of facing and taking responsibility for the darkest chapters of one's own country's history while ideally being financially supported by one's own country's government to do so. Founded in Austria in 1992 by Andreas Maislinger the Gedenkdienst is an alternative to Austria's compulsory national military service as well as a volunteering platform for Austrians to work in Holocaust- and Jewish culture-related institutions around the world with governmental financial support. In Austria it is also referred to as Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service provided by the Austrian Service Abroad. The Austrian Gedenkdienst serves the remembrance of the crimes of Nazism, commemorates its victims and supports Jewish cultural future. The program is rooted in the acknoledgment of responsibility by the Austrian government for the crimes committed by National Socialism.
Jane Mathison Haining was a Scottish missionary for the Church of Scotland in Budapest, Hungary, who was recognized in 1997 by Yad Vashem in Israel as Righteous Among the Nations for having risked her life to help Jews during the Holocaust.
Teach First is a social enterprise registered as a charity which aims to address educational disadvantage in England and Wales. Teach First coordinates an employment-based teaching training programme whereby participants achieve Qualified Teacher Status through the participation in a two-year training programme that involves the completion of a PGDE along with wider leadership skills training and an optional master's degree.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Day, or the International Day in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, is an international memorial day on 27 January that commemorates the victims of the Holocaust, which resulted in the murder of one third of the Jewish people, along with countless members of other minorities between 1933 and 1945 by Nazi Germany, an attempt to implement their "final solution" to the Jewish question. 27 January was chosen to commemorate the date that Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by the Red Army in 1945.
The Ghetto Fighters' House, full name, Itzhak Katzenelson Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Heritage Museum, Documentation and Study Center, was founded in 1949 by members of Kibbutz Lohamei Hagetaot, a community of Holocaust survivors, among them fighters of the ghetto undergrounds and partisan units. The museum is named after Itzhak Katzenelson, a Jewish poet who was murdered at Auschwitz.
The Industry and Parliament Trust (IPT) is a charity that works to promote the mutual understanding of Parliament and business. It works within the Parliament of the United Kingdom and organisations from all sectors of industry. It is non-partisan, non-lobbying and not-for-profit.
The Sutton Trust is an educational charity in the United Kingdom which aims to improve social mobility and address educational disadvantage. The charity was set up by educational philanthropist Sir Peter Lampl in 1997 and since then has undertaken over 150 research studies and funded a wide range of practical programmes to support young people in early years, primary and secondary school, and in accessing higher education and the professions. The charity's Chief Executive is James Turner, formerly of the Education Endowment Foundation.
United Nations General Assembly resolution 60/7 on Holocaust remembrance called for the establishment of a programme of outreach on the subject of the "Holocaust and the United Nations" and measures to mobilize civil society for Holocaust remembrance and education, in order to help to prevent future acts of genocide. Since its establishment by the Department of Public Information in January 2006, the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme has developed an international network of civil society groups and a multi-faceted programme that includes: innovative online educational products, youth outreach, DVDs, seminars and training programmes, a film series, book signings, a permanent exhibit at United Nations Headquarters in New York City, and the annual worldwide observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
The World Holocaust Forum is a series of events aimed at preserving the memory of the Holocaust. It is also known as the "Let My People Live!" Forum.
The British Hero of the Holocaust award is a special national award given by the government of the United Kingdom in recognition of British citizens who assisted in rescuing victims of the Holocaust. On 9 March 2010, it was awarded to 25 individuals posthumously. The award is a solid silver medallion and bears the inscription "in the service of humanity" in recognition of "selfless actions" which "preserved life in the face of persecution".
The Holocaust Educational Foundation (HEF) is a nonprofit organization founded by Theodore Zev Weiss in 1976 and dedicated to the support of teaching and research about the Holocaust at the university level. A part of Northwestern University since 2013, HEF has helped create curriculum materials about the Holocaust in use at more than 400 colleges.
USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education, formerly Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to making audio-visual interviews with survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust and other genocides, a compelling voice for education and action. It was established by Steven Spielberg in 1994, one year after completing his Academy Award-winning film Schindler's List. In January 2006, the foundation partnered with and relocated to the University of Southern California (USC) and was renamed the USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education. In March 2019, the institute opened their new global headquarters on USC's campus.
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Bat-Sheva Dagan is a Polish-Israeli Holocaust survivor, educator, author, and speaker. Born in Łódź, Poland, she was incarcerated in a ghetto in Radom with her parents and two sisters in 1940. After her parents and a sister were deported and murdered in Treblinka in August 1942, she escaped to Germany, but was discovered, imprisoned, and deported to Auschwitz in May 1943. After spending 20 months in Auschwitz, she survived two death marches and was liberated by British troops in May 1945. She was the only survivor of her family. She and her husband settled in Israel, where she taught kindergarten and later obtained degrees in educational counseling and psychology. She went on to author books, poems, and songs for children and young adults on Holocaust themes, and developed psychological and pedagogical methods for teaching the Holocaust to children. She is considered a pioneer in children's Holocaust education.
Karen Emma Pollock is a British writer, activist and chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust (HET).
Beit Terezin or Beit Theresienstadt is a research and educational institution that opened in 1975 in Kibbutz Givat Haim (Ihud), a museum and a place of remembrance of the victims of Nazi Germany persecution at the Theresienstadt concentration camp.
The Holocaust Museum of Oporto was created in 2021 by the Jewish Community of Oporto (CIP/CJP) in partnership with B’nai B’rith International and Holocaust museums in Moscow, Hong Kong, the United States and Europe. The Museum focuses on the general public, particularly on the young, and invests in teaching, in career training for educators, promoting exhibitions and supporting research.
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