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IHRA Plenary Meetings in Manchester

28.11.2014

12 December 2014 —The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) successfully concluded its Plenary meetings in Manchester. The meetings were held from from 1-4 December, 2014.

IHRA Chair Sir Andrew Burns said:

“As we approach the 70th Anniversaries of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bergen-Belsen and other concentration and death camps, I was pleased that IHRA member countries had the opportunity to gather in Manchester to discuss Holocaust education, remembrance and research in a week of intensive, content-filled meetings. IHRA is unique in that it brings together experts in the field and policy-makers to discuss how to maintain the memory of the Holocaust as a permanent influence on the way our societies and future generations will think about the dangers of prejudice, xenophobia and antisemitism.. We agreed a strong reaffirmation of the commitments set out in the Stockholm Declaration of 2000, in particular to honour the victims, fight Holocaust distortion and denial and combat rising antisemitism in Europe”

IHRA was very pleased to welcome Albania, El Salvador and Moldova as new observer countries to IHRA at the Manchester Plenary. The IHRA Plenary also took decisions to adopt guidelines on 'Using Social Media in Holocaust Education’ and to support plans for an IHRA conference on Holocaust-related language and imagery which is scheduled to take place in the autumn of 2015. The Plenary additionally agreed to intensify IHRA’s multi-year work plan projects focusing on improving archival access, research into the impact of Holocaust education, identifying and preserving killing sites in Eastern Europe, and Holocaust Memorial Days.

Following the first day of meetings, a documentary entitled “Night Will Fall”, about the making of a lost documentary "German Concentration Camps Factual Survey" produced by Sidney Bernstein in 1945 about the liberation of the concentration camps, was shown followed by a panel discussion with the documentary's director Andre Singer and producer Sally Angel.  The film evoked a strong reaction from those who saw it and led to an interesting debate on its possible use in education.

The UK Chairmanship also organised two evening events, the first of which took place at Manchester Town Hall, where the Lord Mayor and Sir Andrew Burns addressed the audience. On 3 December a reception was held at Imperial War Museum North. Speakers included Graham Boxer, the director of the museum, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister for Communities and Local Government, and Charlotte Cohen, regional ambassador for the Holocaust Educational Trust and member of the Prime Minister’s Holocaust Commission whose findings will be announced on Holocaust Memorial Day, 27 January 2015. Lord Ahmad spoke about his visit to Auschwitz as part of the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Lessons from Auschwitz programme. In Charlotte’s speech she underlined that: “Holocaust Remembrance cannot be consigned to one single day.”

In advance of the Plenary meetings, the UK Chairmanship and Staffordshire University organised a one-day conference entitled “What Britain Knew: The Holocaust and Nazi Crimes,” which explored the theme of Britain’s knowledge of the Holocaust. A group of experts working in a variety of different fields in the United Kingdom came together to discuss the various ways in which information about Nazi crimes was handled, reinterpreted and acted upon by the British government and public before and after the Second World War. The conference was organised by the Centre of Archaeology at Staffordshire University. Dr Caroline Sturdy Colls, Associate Professor of Forensic Archaeology and Genocide Investigation, said: “The conference is an important milestone in confronting the lesser-known aspects of Britain’s knowledge of, and reactions to, the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes in Europe.”

Click here to read an adaptation of the paper given by Dr Tony Grenville, of The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR), on the occasion of the What Britain Knew conference.

IHRA is a consensus-based intergovernmental body comprised of experts from 31 member countries, eight observer countries, and seven permanent international partner organizations. Its mandate is to promote Holocaust education, remembrance and research and to bring political and social leaders together to learn from the Holocaust for the benefit of citizens of member countries and the international public.

As IHRA Chair in 2014, the United Kingdom chaired plenary meetings from 12-15 May  in London and from 1-4 December in Manchester. The meetings brought together over 200 experts - academics, educators and curators - and policymakers from around the world, representing over 40 countries and international organisations.  A representative from the Vatican also attended as a special guest.

The United Kingdom was named IHRA Chair on 25 February 2014. The UK will chair IHRA until March 2015 when Hungary will assume the chairmanship.  In Manchester Romania’s offer to chair IHRA in 2016 was accepted with unanimous satisfaction.

The United Kingdom was one of the three founding members of IHRA and an original signatory of the Stockholm Declaration of 2000.  2014 marks the second time the United Kingdom has taken the Chairmanship of IHRA.   

The UK has long played a leading role internationally on Holocaust education, remembrance and research. In 1991 England was the first European country to make teaching about the Holocaust a mandatory part of the history curriculum in state secondary schools, whilst in 2009 the UK was the first country to undertake extensive national research into Holocaust teaching and learning.  Holocaust Memorial Day has been marked in the UK since 2001, having been inaugurated the previous year by the then Prime Minister. 

The UK has an extensive network of active and innovative organisations working in the field of Holocaust education, remembrance and research.  The UK is also proud to have a large number of Holocaust survivors and refugees from Nazi persecution who made Britain their home.    

The British government remains committed to the principles and objectives of the Stockholm Declaration.  Prime Minister David Cameron launched a new UK Holocaust Commission in January 2014.  The Commission, which will report its findings to the government by the end of the year, will advise the government on an appropriate permanent memorial and education resource on the Holocaust so that future generations can continue to learn its lessons. 

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