Touching distance: young people’s reflections on hearing testimony from Holocaust survivors

Abstract

This article explores young people’s experiences of hearing first-hand testimony from a Holocaust survivor during a government-funded educational programme in the UK. The study considers Holocaust Education in the UK and the prevalence of survivor speakers in classrooms. It then presents findings from 14 semi-structured interviews and 44 online surveys exploring young people’s experiences of hearing in-person testimony from a Holocaust survivor. Three themes emerge; that the experience of hearing from a survivor had been concrete, connecting and current for them. The article concludes with a consideration of the study’s implications for educators more widely and concludes by offering ways in which they can better support their students in receiving and carrying survivor testimony in different educational settings.