A decade of action against antisemitism

UNAA
Feb 1
4 min read

1st February 2026

UNESCO is the UN agency specifically mandated to promote Holocaust and genocide education. We work with strategic partners to create a future where hate has no place.

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.

At a time when survivors and direct witnesses of the Holocaust are growing fewer, and historical facts are increasingly under attack, it is vital to further invest in education to pass on memory to younger generations as well as to combat contemporary forms of antisemitism. Since its creation, UNESCO has been resolutely committed to carrying out this mission.

Educating about the Holocaust and addressing violent pasts

More than 80 years after the liberation of the Nazi German Concentration and Extermination Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, UNESCO is working with Member States globally to advance Holocaust and genocide education though the UNESCO International Programme on Holocaust Education. In 2025, UNESCO launched the fourth programme cycle of the capacity-building programme implemented with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum that supports policymakers who seek to strengthen Holocaust education and reflections on local violent pasts as a contribution to sustainable peace.

Since 2015, the IPHGE has reached 31 countries, globally, and initiated the development of teacher training resources, the reform and update of textbooks and the development of new curricula. Continuing this work, UNESCO organized in September a policy training on “Addressing violent pasts” for senior policymakers from 12 countries at the memorial site of Auschwitz-Birkenau, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979.

In Europe, UNESCO supports Holocaust remembrance education across Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia via the development of a new joint exhibition in Auschwitz-Birkenau on the history of the Holocaust in former Yugoslavia. Bringing the exhibition to teachers and learners in the region, UNESCO supports the development of a traveling exhibition and tailored education materials for all six involved countries, in collaboration with local governments.

Countering Holocaust denial and distortion

Holocaust denial is any attempt to negate the established facts of the Nazi genocide of 6 million European Jews. UNESCO’s partnership with the World Jewish Congress fights against Holocaust denial and distortion and provides people factual answers about the Holocaust including on the AboutHolocaust.org website. Available in 19 languages, the site received over 4.4 million visitors in 2024 alone.

UNESCO also published a guide for teachers and corresponding lesson activities to better support educators in countering Holocaust denial and distortion whilst teaching about the history of the genocide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9AGaJ4Ppkw

Addressing antisemitism

UNESCO research finds that more three quarters of surveyed teachers in Europe have encountered antisemitic incidents between students, with 27 % of teachers witnessing more than 9 of such incidents. At the same time, over 70% of teachers report receiving no targeted training on this subject.

Hate speech, notably antisemitism and Holocaust denial, has reached levels not seen since World War II. Most teachers have never received specific training to confront this reality, including the consequences related to AI development. UNESCO provides policymakers with unique tools to empower teachers in more than 30 countries — from classrooms and campuses to sports clubs — and soon even more.

Khaled El-Enany UNESCO Director-General

As part of its Global Citizenship and Peace Education Programme, UNESCO has trained more than 1,300 educators since 2023 on how to prevent antisemitism through education. Together with the European Commission and the OSCE, UNESCO has set up a dedicated training programme working with 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.