The Holocaust Educational Trust’s Testimony 360 tool is a pinch-me moment

Holocaust survivors know well that when we stand before an audience and share our testimonies, we are regarded as a living witness to those incomparable atrocities. A symbol of living memory reminding those who listen that the Holocaust is not yet lost to the dusty pages of textbooks and the long passage of time but lived experience standing before them in flesh and bone. But as the years go on and Holocaust survivors succumb to their mortality, we begin to wonder more deeply about how our memory will go on ‘living’.

We urge students not just to listen, but to remember and their remembrance becomes characterised by the survivor they heard from. They remember a name, a voice, the person they met and, students have expressed to many on numerous occasions, that means far more to them than anything they have been taught. It’s these messages which continue to inspire me and give me strength to share my testimony even when the world around us feels resistant and volatile.

I have devoted myself to sharing my testimony whenever I can to honour my family, the six million Jewish men, women and children who were brutally murdered and to see out my duty to ensure that the Holocaust is never forgotten. As antisemitism continues to fester and spread with renewed energy and Jews suffered the worst attack since the Holocaust perpetrated by Hamas on 7th October, I feel my efforts will never be finished. I continue in the hope that if students learn where antisemitism can ultimately lead, they may be inspired to stand up to anti-Jewish hatred wherever they encounter it.

When I began sharing my testimony publicly in 2006, I never could have imagined the reception from students nor the ways in which the preservation of testimony would evolve.