Preparing resources, lessons, and activities for Holocaust Memorial Day is an opportunity to bring your class together and enable those from 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.
There will be a YouTube broadcast of the commemoration event held at the former Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp, offering an opportunity for global reflection on the significance of the events of the past. Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau are encouraging institutions and organisations around the world to join the commemoration by organising a space to view the broadcast together.
We’ve listed some of the best free resources and activities to help support your lesson planning and commemoration events below.
Free resources
Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau
A visit to the Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau offers a powerful educational experience. However, there’s also various educational resources available online to support and enhance learning for those who don’t have the opportunity to visit, have already visited previously, or plan to visit in the future.
Holocaust Educational Trust
The Holocaust Education Trust offer free lesson plans, classroom resources and guidance documents for teachers online. Their flagship resource, Exploring the Holocaust, is a comprehensive and cross-curricular scheme of work for the teaching of the Holocaust at KS3 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and at S2 in Scotland. They also offer a wide selection of resources for other age groups too, as well as free teaching training workshops for teachers.
Holocaust Memorial Day Trust
The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust provide various resources to support learning and to help you plan your own activity for Holocaust Memorial Day. This includes life stories of survivors and those who were murdered, virtual activities, lesson materials, and more. You can filter resources easily in their drop-down menu by the category of resource that you’d like to find, whether it be activity templates, presentations and digital exhibitions, dates to remember, or something else.
Tom Palmer resources
Tom Palmer is the author of over sixty children’s books, including six award-winning historical fiction titles. He is also the creator of several free resources that are designed to help young people commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and to inspire them to create non-fiction historical writing based on true and powerful stories from the Holocaust.
· Film intended to guide children through the process of writing a story about a Holocaust survivor
· Resources created by the National Literacy Trust guiding the children through that writing process
Plan your educational trip
We offer fully guided educational history tours for those studying the Holocaust in both Germany and Poland. Our Holocaust tours to Poland include a visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial Museum, where your students can deepen their knowledge and commemorate the victims.
A highlight of our tours to Poland is the increasingly rare opportunity to meet a Holocaust survivor or recipient of the ‘Righteous Amongst the Nations’ award, to hear their unique stories and ask them about their experiences.
All our tours are accompanied by an experienced guide chosen for their expert knowledge and ability to engage with your students, helping them develop their understanding of this most emotive of subjects.
Summary
Educating students about the Holocaust on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau is especially important because it ensures that the lessons of this tragic chapter in history are preserved and passed down to future generations.
Through learning about the Holocaust, it also helps students to become more informed, empathetic, and proactive global citizens. We can learn both from and about the Holocaust and more recent genocides, for a better future.
