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UNESCO and the Azrieli Foundation are working together to distribute Holocaust survivors’ memoirs.

As part of activities to promote education about the Holocaust, UNESCO is partnering with the Azrieli Foundation to provide access to testimonies of Holocaust survivors through the UNESCO Associated Schools Network (ASPnet).

ASPnet links educational institutions across the world around a common goal: to build peace in the minds of children and young people. The 10,000 ASPnet member schools, present in over 180 countries, work to support international understanding, peace, intercultural dialogue, sustainable development and quality education in practice.

The Azrieli Foundation launched the Holocaust Survivors Memoirs Program in 2005 with a view to collect and publish memoirs and diaries of Holocaust survivors in Canada. Personal accounts of survivors of genocide have proven to be very important educational tools to help students empathise, connect better with the past and understand how violence begins and how it can be prevented.

Agents for positive change

“UNESCO considers its ASPnet students as agents for positive change.  The memoirs provided to UNESCO by the Azrieli Foundation are an important and innovative learning tool for our students to truly understand, through personal accounts, the consequences of antisemitism, racism and all forms of intolerance. These books support the wider ASPnet goals of international understanding and instilling peace in the minds of young people,” said Sabine Detzel, International ASPnet Coordinator.

The memoirs will be used mostly in sub-Saharan Africa to help interested schools promote education about the history of genocides in support of UNESCO’s programmes in the region. The memoirs will support awareness-raising among students and teachers about the importance of teaching about violent events of the past as a means to build a culture of prevention.

“We are proud to partner with UNESCO in sharing these memoirs and are excited by the connection and lessons these books will provide between generations and cultures across the globe,” says Naomi Azrieli, Chair and CEO, The Azrieli Foundation.