The number of British schools commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day has dropped by nearly 60 percent in the past two years, according to a nonprofit dedicated to promoting the annual memorial on January 27.
Observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which marks the day Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army in 1945, had been rising in recent years, with more than 2,000 secondary schools in the UK holding commemorative or educational events to memorialize the day in 2023, according to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT), a nonprofit established by the UK Government to promote and support International Holocaust Memorial Day.
However, since the Gaza war began with the Hamas terror onslaught of October 7, 2023, unleashing a wave of antisemitism around the world, observance in the educational system has been waning. Just under 1,200 held events in 2024, and only 854 schools did so in 2025, out of approximately 4,200 secondary schools across the country, HMDT said.
“I fear for what will happen this year,” UK Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis wrote in an editorial published over the weekend in The Sunday Times.
Mirvis acknowledged the challenges educators face in organizing such an event in light of its “polarising impact,” with parents calling Holocaust education a form of propaganda or insisting it also highlight the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Edition
by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the terms
“Many teachers facing this dilemma have opted to follow the path of least resistance: not to mark Holocaust Memorial Day at all,” he wrote.
However, a failure to teach about the Holocaust risks “corroding the moral foundations of a society,” he explained.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks with Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis at the Holocaust Education Trust appeal dinner in London, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Isabel Infantes/Pool via AP)
“The Shoah was not inevitable,” Mirvis wrote. “It was the end of a road paved with normalised scapegoating, constant disinformation, violent autocracy and a culture of the most extreme hatred. It began not in concentration camps but in classrooms, newspapers and public squares where people learnt to look away.”
“Holocaust education is therefore not Jewish self-interest. It is civic education in its most urgent form,” he continued. “It is not an endorsement of any government, perspective or conflict. It is an act of human memory.”
The European Jewish Congress voiced similar concerns, calling the data a “troubling signal.”
“Holocaust Memorial Day is not about politics. It is about memory, responsibility, and education,” the organization wrote in a statement. “It exists to honor the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust and to remind future generations of the consequences of hatred, indifference, and extremism. Avoiding commemoration out of fear of controversy undermines the very purpose of education.”
People visit railroad tracks and a carriage used for prisoner transports in WWII, just outside the former Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in Oswiecim, Poland, January 25, 2025. (Oded BaliltyAP)
According to figures published by the Community Service Trust, a Jewish security charity, antisemitic incidents have been soaring in Britain since the war in Gaza began. Within days of Hamas’s attack, and even before Israel began its ground offensive in Gaza, there were mass anti-Israeli protests in London. Rallies continued throughout the war, which halted in October 2025 with a US-brokered ceasefire.
More than 1,500 antisemitic incidents were recorded in the UK between January and June 2025, a figure that is second only to the first half of 2024, CST said in August.
Months of rising hate activity culminated in October with the Manchester Yom Kippur terror attack, when a driver plowed into pedestrians outside a synagogue before exiting his vehicle and attacking people with a knife. Two men, Adrian Daulby, 53, and Melvin Cravitz, 66, were killed in the attack, Daulby by a gunshot fired by a police officer trying to take down the terrorist.
Is accurate Israel coverage important to you?
If so, we have a request.
Every day during the past two years of war and rising global anti-Zionism and antisemitism, our journalists kept you abreast of the most important developments that merit your attention. Millions of people rely on ToI for fact-based coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
We care about Israel – and we know you do too. So we have an ask for this new year of 2026: express your values by joining The Times of Israel Community, an exclusive group for readers like you who appreciate and financially support our work.
I’m with you and will give
I’m with you and will give
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You appreciate our journalism
You clearly find our careful reporting valuable, in a time when facts are often distorted and news coverage often lacks context.
Your support is essential to continue our work. We want to continue delivering the professional journalism you value, even as the demands on our newsroom have grown dramatically since October 7.
So today, please consider joining our reader support group, The Times of Israel Community. For as little as $6 a month you’ll become our partners while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Join Our Community
Join Our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
