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Human rights education at Holocaust memorial sites across the European Union: An overview of practices

“Most European Union (EU) Member States have institutions whose task is to preserve the memory of the Holocaust and its victims. Many of these institutions offer educational programmes that extend beyond the Holocaust itself and allow visiting groups, particularly young people, to reflect on contemporary human rights issues.

 

This publication aims to support such institutions, as well as educators, in identifying ways to achieve a more thorough understanding of the Holocaust and of human rights – ways in which the past can stimulate critical and self-critical reflection on the present.

 

It examines the role of memorial sites and museums, drawing on findings from the FRA project Discover the past for the future – A study on the role of historical sites and museums in Holocaust education and human rights education in the EU. It is also based on interviews with representatives of selected memorial sites and museums.

 

The publication provides examples of the different ways in which memorial sites link the history of the Holocaust to human rights – whether by means of educational programmes addressing human rights directly or by raising in a more general way the issues of the dignity of human life and equality of human beings.” (p.3)