Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research

Holocaust education, research and remembrance were one of the commitments of the 2009 Terezin Declaration. The signatory states recognised that knowing the history of the Holocaust (Shoah) is essential to preventing antisemitism, racism and other forms of hatred and intolerance. They also recognised that the passing of the survivor generation makes it more urgent to record and pass on their testimony. The European Shoah Legacy Institute (ESLI) worked on this commitment through international art and design competitions, exhibitions, survivor testimony projects, and a training program for provenance researchers. This page brings together the materials from that work that are kept in this independent archive.

International poster competitions "Keeping the Memory Alive"

In June 2010, ESLI launched an international poster design competition for Holocaust Remembrance Day, together with Yad Vashem in Israel and the Mémorial de la Shoah in France. The competition had three aims: to involve younger generations in remembrance, to raise awareness of 27 January as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and to support public discussion of why remembering the Holocaust matters. It was co-financed by the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (ITF), which has since become the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). The winning posters were shown on 27 January 2012 at the United Nations in New York and at venues in at least 28 countries.

A second round followed in 2014. It was run jointly with Yad Vashem, the London Jewish Cultural Centre, the 2014 Canadian Chairmanship of the IHRA and the United Nations Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme. Hundreds of art and design students took part, most of whom had no personal connection to the Holocaust. See the poster projects, the 2012 winning posters, the 2014 winning posters and the background article International Poster Competition 2014.

Exhibitions and survivor testimony

ESLI used exhibitions to bring individual life stories to audiences in Prague, Brussels and elsewhere. The archive includes material on several of them:

• The Last Flight of Petr Ginz, a project with the Jewish Museum in Prague on children in the Holocaust. It focused on Petr Ginz, a talented boy who produced the magazine Vedem in the Terezín ghetto. One of his drawings was taken into space by Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon in 2003.
• Yehuda Bacon: Returns, the first exhibition in the Czech Republic of the Israeli painter and Terezín and Auschwitz survivor Yehuda Bacon. It was held at the Czech Center in Prague in September 2011, and there is a photo gallery.
• Prisoner of Her Past, a screening in Prague in October 2010 of the documentary about survivor Sonia Reich and her late-onset post-traumatic stress disorder. There is a photo gallery.
• Don't Lose Faith in Mankind… The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia through the Eyes of Jewish Children, an exhibition shown in Brussels from 19 November to 3 December 2010.
• Keeping the Memory Alive, the exhibition of the winning competition posters.
• "Ein Wunder, dass ich lebe" (It's a miracle that I'm alive), short biographies and stories of Czech Holocaust survivors.

Provenance Research Training Program (2012–2014)

The Provenance Research Training Program (PRTP) gave advanced training in researching the provenance of Nazi-looted art, Judaica and other cultural property. Each week-long workshop covered the history of cultural plunder, research methods in public and private archives, and the legal, ethical and policy frameworks for restitution. The program also aimed to build an international network of provenance researchers. Five workshops were held:

• Magdeburg, Germany (10–15 June 2012), co-sponsored by the German Coordination Office for Lost Cultural Assets.
• Zagreb, Croatia (10–15 March 2013), under the auspices of the Croatian Ministry of Culture.
• Vilnius, Lithuania (1–6 December 2013), held during the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of the EU and hosted by the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum.
• Athens, Greece (2–5 June 2014), held during the Greek Presidency and hosted by the Acropolis Museum.
• Rome, Italy (8–12 December 2014), held with the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Tourism, with forty participants from fourteen countries.

The workshop reports are linked from each workshop page. ESLI's wider work on looted cultural property is described in the Property issues section.

Why this work still matters

When ESLI closed in 2017, survivors could still speak in classrooms across Europe. That window is closing. According to the Claims Conference, about 196,600 Jewish Holocaust survivors were alive in January 2026, with a median age of 87. Education and remembrance now depend more and more on recorded testimony, archives, museum collections and well-trained teachers. Since 2017, international bodies such as the IHRA have continued to publish guidance on teaching and learning about the Holocaust. In 2021, the European Union adopted its first Strategy on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life (2021–2030), which also includes Holocaust remembrance and education. The posters, exhibitions and testimonies kept here remain a resource for teachers, students and researchers.

Frequently asked questions

When is International Holocaust Remembrance Day?

It is held every year on 27 January, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945. The United Nations designated the day in 2005. ESLI's poster competitions were created to mark it.

Can I use the posters and exhibition materials for teaching?

The materials are archived here for reference. Copyright in individual posters and photographs belongs to their authors and the original partner institutions, so please contact the relevant institution before reusing them.

What is provenance research?

Provenance research traces the ownership history of an object. For Nazi-era cultural property, it establishes whether an artwork or a piece of Judaica was confiscated, looted or sold under duress between 1933 and 1945. That evidence is the basis for restitution claims and fair solutions.

Is ESLI still running these programs?

No. ESLI was wound up at the end of August 2017. This independent archive keeps its materials available but does not run programs, competitions or training.