by Alex Maws - Head of Education and Heritage at the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR)

A recent report from the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust showed that there was a 20% decrease in the number of HMD events that were organised in the UK in January 2024. When HMDT’s Chief Executive Oliva Marks-Woldman refers in it to past event organisers  ‘reluctantly or deliberately’ disengaging from HMD this year, we know what she is referring to: the ongoing war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas and the divisive effect that it is having in our own communities.

This trend is shocking, disturbing and hurtful, but I can’t say it’s surprising. One the one hand, the Holocaust and the war in Gaza have nothing to do with each other. But on the other hand, you only need to scan the photographs that accompany news stories about anti-war protests to find countless examples of how members of the public conflate these issues. There are references to Israel as Nazis; ‘another Holocaust’; ‘victims becoming oppressors’; ‘Hitler would be proud’.

If I was to try to be diplomatic about it, I would note that HMD event organisers are generally not experts in these topics, and I can understand how they might have felt confused or overwhelmed to the point that they felt that the best course of action was to not hold an event at all. (I would struggle, however, to extend this same sense of diplomacy to those who deliberately chose to hold HMD events where they referred to the events in Gaza as one of the ‘subsequent genocides’ that the day also commemorates.)

This week, we will mark a different Holocaust remembrance day, Yom HaShoah, a solemn day of reflection for the Jewish community. The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) is proud to sponsor Yom HaShoah UK as one of our many funding partner organisations, as well as the Maccabi GB Yellow Candle Project and other local Yom HaShoah events.

I can confidently predict that there will be no drop-off in Yom HaShoah events this year.

Of course the Jewish community understands what is and what is not the Holocaust. We will mourn the loss of our family members – a trauma which still haunts so many of our homes – while also remembering that the date of Yom HaShoah marks the anniversary (in the Jewish calendar) of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, meaning this is a time to honour Jewish heroes and martyrs who stood up to Nazi oppression. If there was ever a time to be uncowed by the culture we are facing of surging antisemitism, it is on this occasion.

However, Yom HaShoah does not have to be a Jewish-only event. I can’t help but wonder if there are people across the education sector who might welcome a chance to have something like a do-over from Holocaust Memorial Day – to hold those events that were never held out of fear or to deliver some of the content they may have avoided back in January.

If so, I recommend reading the recent publication from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, ‘IHRA Reflections on Terminology for Holocaust Comparison’. Through our work as members of the UK’s delegation to the IHRA, the AJR helps to bring best practices from the UK with partner organisations from around the world, and to bring international best practices here. This publication is a perfect example of how educators, clergy, policy makers and event organisers across the country can benefit from this exchange with international experts.

Commemorating the Holocaust is not easy. But then, it shouldn’t be easy. The scale, the complexities, the nuances all contribute to this being an incredibly difficult undertaking. But this complexity is also what inspires us to keep coming back, year after year.

No the current situation in the Middle East is not the Holocaust, but it does serve as an important reminder that antisemitism did not magically disappear with the liberation of the camps. Jewish people around the world continue to wonder and worry about how and where we will be able to live our lives in peace in happiness, without our very existence in society being seen by some as a problem that needs to be corrected.

If there is any sensitivity we should consider in deciding whether it is appropriate to commemorate the Holocaust right now, it is the sensitivity of Jewish people. Our family trees are missing entire branches. And although being Jewish is something that brings tremendous joy and pride to so many, it is also true that in the back of our minds, we know that not very long ago the entire world once turned its back on us when we most needed its protection – and we can’t help but wonder if that might happen again.

This is all the inspiration I need on this Yom HaShoah to commemorate the Holocaust, more openly than ever.