Decades after the Holocaust, antisemitism is on the rise in Europe and beyond. Education programmes are vital to help people understand violent pasts and develop values to prevent future atrocities. 

To mark the 80^th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay recently travelled to Poland to take part in official commemorations. On site, she visited a new research centre on hate, extremism and radicalization being created by the Counter Extremism Project with support from UNESCO in the former house of Auschwitz commandant, Rudolf Höss. 

She reiterated UNESCO’s commitment to the fight against antisemitism.

For over a decade, UNESCO has supported countries around the world to integrate the history of the Holocaust into their school curricula. This International Programme on Holocaust and Genocide Education, implemented with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, has reached 24 of UNESCO’s Member States across all regions, including Cambodia, Colombia and Rwanda.

As part of its Global Citizenship and Peace Education Programme, UNESCO has also trained more than 1,000 educators in 2024 on how to prevent antisemitism through education. Together with the European Commission and the OSCE, UNESCO has set up a dedicated teacher training programme which is already in place in twelve EU countries and will this year be extended to all EU Member States.

Through its “Memory of the World” Register, UNESCO supports the preservation and dissemination of exceptionally valuable Holocaust archives, including the Diaries of Anne Frank, the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial, the Warsaw Ghetto Archives, and Claude Lanzmann's film Shoah.

In addition, by adding the camp of Auschwitz to its list of World Heritage sites in 1979, UNESCO is helping to preserve the memory of these events, so that the universal awareness of the horror of the Holocaust never fades. 

In 2025, UNESCO has published guides to help educators and journalists combat Holocaust denial, historical distortion, and contemporary antisemitism. 

The Guide for teachers and the Lesson activities for secondary education delve into the specifics of how Holocaust denial and antisemitic discourse appear online and in the classroom.

 The Guide for journalists presents the existing legal frameworks relating to Holocaust disinformation, and provides recommendations for media professionals to help them cover cases of Holocaust denial and antisemitism.

UNESCO continues to fight against antisemitism and encourages Member States to integrate it in their educational policies. We are engaged in communications campaigns against antisemitism with the message that it does not just threaten Jewish people but undermines peace for us all.