Holocaust Memorial Day – 27 January 2023

Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) is on Friday 27 January 2023, and now is the time to plan your activities. There are lots of free resources online to help you lead assemblies, activities or lessons with students.

The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2023 is Ordinary People. Here are some projects and resources from the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust for this theme:

[Extra]Ordinary Portraits
This year, an arts project and competition is running for students to learn about an individual affected by the themes of Holocaust Memorial Day (genocide, identity-based persecution, refugeeism, conflict) and make a portrait of them. We have provided resources that can be used by individual young people to help them get started, or by an educator to lead a session to get a group involved. The deadline to submit portraits to the competition is 5 December 2022, but you are also welcome to take part after this date and have an in-school display of portraits produced.

Ordinary Objects, Extraordinary Journeys (secondary)
This is a brand-new Holocaust education website, created by the HMD Trust and the National Holocaust Centre and Museum, with the Jewish Museum in Greece. It features four individuals targeted during the Holocaust, their objects and their journeys. Some of the objects have been photographed in 3D so students can view them from all angles, there are maps, photographs, video clips etc. There is a resource to support schools to use this in the classroom for HMD.

Kindertransport lesson plans (primary and secondary)
This pair of lesson plans support all teachers to introduce the history of the Kindertransport – a programme that rescued 10,000 children from the Nazis.

Let us know:

When you know what you are going to do, please let the HMD Trust know by adding your school to the HMD map, or emailing [email protected].