One theme of Holocaust Memorial Day has been how the Shoah will be remembered as the number of survivors dwindles.

One group of dedicated young people are working hard to ensure new generations will know what happened to Europe's Jews under the Nazis.

They are the Holocaust Educational Trust's 65 regional ambassadors across Britain - most of them not Jewish - who teach their fellow students, friends and community about the Holocaust.

Many of them have been inspired by HET's Lessons from Auschwitz project, which so far has funded 20,000 students and teachers to meet a survivor and visit Auschwitz.

Jack Douglass, 21, who studies history at Leicester University, said his trip to the camp was "a life-changing experience". He said: "I began to think about things differently, and it motivated me to become an ambassador."

Since volunteering, the Crewe-born student has been busy spreading HET's message. "I've interviewed people for the appeal film, which gets put up on social media and raises awareness and I've conducted interviews at the university with survivors."

He said, as a Briton, he feels personally connected to the genocide. "When you study it, you realise that the Brits knew it was happening, and that antisemitism here stopped victims emigrating. We need to stop shrugging off our responsibility."

Seventeen-year-old regional ambassador Karina Mendonca said learning about the Holocaust has a noticeable impact on the way students treat each other. "Quite a few go very quiet when I talk to them about the Holocaust. They're shocked. Some leave saying they're going to do their best to become nicer people. "

In February, Karina, who is at school in Enfield, north London, will run a project for each member of a GCSE class to research a family who were at Auschwitz. "It's important that students know these people were individuals and had lives like us," she said.

She is also planning to write a children's story with a moral about persecution, and a compilation detailing the lives of Holocaust victims.

Beth Somerville, a 19-year-old undergraduate at Edinburgh University, is one of 10 Scottish regional ambassadors. She said people were surprised she worked for HET and was not Jewish.

"But it's not about your upbringing or being Jewish, it's about humanity - how we can solve the problems humankind faces. This generation has the chance to change things for the better."