Schools in Britain have withdrawn from Anne Frank Trust education due to ‘community tensions’ following the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The charity has said that three schools have postponed their education programs since Hamas launched terror attacks on Israel on October 7.
The trust teaches 9 to 15 year olds about Anne Frank, the Holocaust, prejudice and anti-Semitism.
It comes as the world prepares to commemorate the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis on Holocaust Remembrance Day on Saturday, January 27.
The Anne Frank Trust will reach 119,000 young people in more than 800 schools in Great Britain by 2023.
Anne Frank and her family hid in a secret outbuilding of the canal house for two years after the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II, but were captured during a raid in 1944.
The Anne Frank Trust has said that three schools have postponed their education programs since Hamas launched terror attacks on Israel on October 7
Today it was announced that Her Majesty The Queen (formerly HRH The Duchess of Cornwall) has become the first Royal Patron of the Anne Frank Trust UK. Photo shows the Queen with an inscription from Anne Frank’s diary during a reception on the occasion of Holocaust Memorial Day in 2022
Chief executive Tim Robertson said that despite the three schools withdrawing since the start of the war, their overall attendance numbers have increased since this period last year.
He said the charity had not seen fit to make any major changes to the curriculum as a result of October 7, but he told the Jewish Chronicle ‘we have provided additional training and support for our staff’.
He also said that in the aftermath of the attacks, more “emphasis was placed on some key elements of Anne Frank’s story,” such as her sister Margot’s longing to move to what was then British Palestine, and the fact that Anne’s best friend Hannah Goslar rebuilt the country. her life in Israel after surviving Bergen Belsen.
The charity also announced today that Her Majesty The Queen (formerly HRH The Duchess of Cornwall) has become the first Royal Patron of the Anne Frank Trust UK.
Anne Frank and her family hid in a back house near the canal house for two years after the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II, but were captured during a raid in 1944.
Anne and her sister died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, but her diary, found by her father Otto, became one of the most terrifying stories of the Holocaust, selling around 30 million copies.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: ‘Hamas’ brutal attacks on October 7 marked the deadliest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust. Since then, we have seen an astonishing 1,350 percent increase in anti-Semitism.
“The answer to the rampant anti-Semitism we see is surely to learn more about the dangers of Jew-hatred, not less.
‘This should not be controversial, and if there are safety concerns the response should be to confront them, not to avoid the subject for fear of offending those who don’t want children to learn why it is wrong to hate Jews.’
According to the Anne Frank Trust, 73 percent of young people make ‘significant’ progress in their knowledge about prejudice after the workshops.
The revelation that schools are withdrawing from the charity comes after data published yesterday by the Metropolitan Police showed that more than thirteen times the number of anti-Semitic hate crimes were recorded following Hamas’s attack on Israel in October.
Auschwitz concentration camp was the place where a million Jewish people were slaughtered by the Nazis
From October 7 to November 7, 2023, a total of 679 anti-Semitic crimes were registered by police, compared to 50 in the same period the year before and 81 in 2021
Jews were called ‘evil’ in December on graffiti sprayed on skate ramps used by children in a park in Notting Hill, west London
Photos taken in December showed a bus stop in Stamford Hill covered in graffiti showing a Star of David with a cross spray-painted on it
From October 7 to November 7, 2023, a total of 679 anti-Semitic crimes were registered by police, compared to 50 in the same period the year before and 81 in 2021.
The data shows a similar picture to that of many other major police forces in Britain.
Some of the shocking attacks in recent months include anti-Semitic graffiti calling Jews “evil”, which was sprayed across skate ramps in a park in Notting Hill, London, in December.
In the same month, a man was also caught on CCTV knocking off the hats of Jewish men near a synagogue in Hackney.
The withdrawal of schools from Holocaust education comes after polling by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) shows worrying levels of anti-Jewish prejudice among the British public.
The organization commissioned King’s College London to research British adults’ attitudes towards Jews using YouGov.
It found that a third of the British public aged over 64 believe that Israel treats the Palestinians as the Nazis treated the Jews. This is more than a third among 18 to 24 year olds.
More than one in ten 18- to 24-year-olds believe that Jewish people only talk about the Holocaust to further their political agenda.
Nearly a fifth of the British public believe Israel can get away with anything because its supporters control the media. This is more than a quarter among 18 to 24 year olds.
Compared to the general population (one in twenty), double the number of 18 to 24 year olds (nearly one in ten) do not believe that Jewish people are as loyal to Britain as other British people.
Compared to the general population, more than double the proportion of 18 to 24 year olds are not as open to having Jewish friends as they are to having friends from other parts of British society.
While almost a fifth of the British public believe that Israel and its supporters are a bad influence on our democracy, this rises to just over a quarter of 18 to 24 year olds.
Seven percent of Britons do not believe Israel is right to defend itself against those who want to destroy the country. That figure doubles to 14 percent of 18 to 24 year olds.
More than one in ten young Britons do not believe that Israel has a right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people.
It comes after Elon Musk visited Auschwitz with his son this week following backlash for endorsing an anti-Semitic post on X.