Aphra Brandreth: On this Holocaust memorial day – memory is now becoming a choice
This framing isn't accidental.
Aphra Brandreth is member of Parliament for Chester South and Eddisbury.
Each year, on 27 January, we commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day.
Today marks 81 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Nazi Germany’s largest extermination camp, where it is estimated that one million Jews — men, women and children — were murdered in gas chambers.
Although a crucial act of remembrance, Holocaust Memorial Day has never been only about the past. It has always been about the future, and about the kind of world we choose to build when we know, beyond doubt, where hatred and dehumanisation can lead.
In 2026, we are fast approaching a turning point as the Holocaust increasingly fades from living memory. The generation who survived the camps, who hid children, who resisted, and who bore witness is almost gone. As those voices fall silent, responsibility does not disappear; it transfers to us. We must ensure that the horrors of the Holocaust are never forgotten, so that we never go back.
As we assume responsibility for remembrance beyond those who experienced the Holocaust firsthand, we do so in an age where information is ubiquitous and easily accessible. This brings both opportunity and risk. Technology can help preserve memory and testimony, yet misinformation and disinformation now spread rapidly across media platforms, often amplified by conspiracy theories that travel further than evidence or lived experience. Holocaust denial and antisemitism, once relegated to the margins, have become disturbingly commonplace, cloaked in the language of “alternative facts” and “just asking questions.”
Among the most transformative of these technologies is artificial intelligence. Used well, AI can be extraordinary. It can translate survivor testimony into dozens of languages; archive, search and connect millions of records across museums and memorials; and create interactive educational tools that allow young people to explore history deeply and personally. It can preserve voices, faces and stories for generations yet to come.
But AI also has a darker side. The same tools that can preserve truth can also fabricate it. Deepfakes, fake documents, manipulated videos and automated misinformation campaigns are already being used to distort history. When falsehoods can be generated at scale, the danger is not simply confusion, but the erosion of trust itself.
That is why Holocaust education can no longer be about remembrance alone. It must also equip young people with digital literacy, critical thinking skills, and the confidence to question what they see and hear.
It is both tragic and dangerous that we are increasingly failing to do so.
The most alarming reality is that the number of schools across the UK marking Holocaust Memorial Day has halved over the past …
This framing isn't accidental.
Aphra Brandreth is member of Parliament for Chester South and Eddisbury.
Each year, on 27 January, we commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day.
Today marks 81 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Nazi Germany’s largest extermination camp, where it is estimated that one million Jews — men, women and children — were murdered in gas chambers.
Although a crucial act of remembrance, Holocaust Memorial Day has never been only about the past. It has always been about the future, and about the kind of world we choose to build when we know, beyond doubt, where hatred and dehumanisation can lead.
In 2026, we are fast approaching a turning point as the Holocaust increasingly fades from living memory. The generation who survived the camps, who hid children, who resisted, and who bore witness is almost gone. As those voices fall silent, responsibility does not disappear; it transfers to us. We must ensure that the horrors of the Holocaust are never forgotten, so that we never go back.
As we assume responsibility for remembrance beyond those who experienced the Holocaust firsthand, we do so in an age where information is ubiquitous and easily accessible. This brings both opportunity and risk. Technology can help preserve memory and testimony, yet misinformation and disinformation now spread rapidly across media platforms, often amplified by conspiracy theories that travel further than evidence or lived experience. Holocaust denial and antisemitism, once relegated to the margins, have become disturbingly commonplace, cloaked in the language of “alternative facts” and “just asking questions.”
Among the most transformative of these technologies is artificial intelligence. Used well, AI can be extraordinary. It can translate survivor testimony into dozens of languages; archive, search and connect millions of records across museums and memorials; and create interactive educational tools that allow young people to explore history deeply and personally. It can preserve voices, faces and stories for generations yet to come.
But AI also has a darker side. The same tools that can preserve truth can also fabricate it. Deepfakes, fake documents, manipulated videos and automated misinformation campaigns are already being used to distort history. When falsehoods can be generated at scale, the danger is not simply confusion, but the erosion of trust itself.
That is why Holocaust education can no longer be about remembrance alone. It must also equip young people with digital literacy, critical thinking skills, and the confidence to question what they see and hear.
It is both tragic and dangerous that we are increasingly failing to do so.
The most alarming reality is that the number of schools across the UK marking Holocaust Memorial Day has halved over the past …
Aphra Brandreth: On this Holocaust memorial day – memory is now becoming a choice
This framing isn't accidental.
Aphra Brandreth is member of Parliament for Chester South and Eddisbury.
Each year, on 27 January, we commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day.
Today marks 81 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Nazi Germany’s largest extermination camp, where it is estimated that one million Jews — men, women and children — were murdered in gas chambers.
Although a crucial act of remembrance, Holocaust Memorial Day has never been only about the past. It has always been about the future, and about the kind of world we choose to build when we know, beyond doubt, where hatred and dehumanisation can lead.
In 2026, we are fast approaching a turning point as the Holocaust increasingly fades from living memory. The generation who survived the camps, who hid children, who resisted, and who bore witness is almost gone. As those voices fall silent, responsibility does not disappear; it transfers to us. We must ensure that the horrors of the Holocaust are never forgotten, so that we never go back.
As we assume responsibility for remembrance beyond those who experienced the Holocaust firsthand, we do so in an age where information is ubiquitous and easily accessible. This brings both opportunity and risk. Technology can help preserve memory and testimony, yet misinformation and disinformation now spread rapidly across media platforms, often amplified by conspiracy theories that travel further than evidence or lived experience. Holocaust denial and antisemitism, once relegated to the margins, have become disturbingly commonplace, cloaked in the language of “alternative facts” and “just asking questions.”
Among the most transformative of these technologies is artificial intelligence. Used well, AI can be extraordinary. It can translate survivor testimony into dozens of languages; archive, search and connect millions of records across museums and memorials; and create interactive educational tools that allow young people to explore history deeply and personally. It can preserve voices, faces and stories for generations yet to come.
But AI also has a darker side. The same tools that can preserve truth can also fabricate it. Deepfakes, fake documents, manipulated videos and automated misinformation campaigns are already being used to distort history. When falsehoods can be generated at scale, the danger is not simply confusion, but the erosion of trust itself.
That is why Holocaust education can no longer be about remembrance alone. It must also equip young people with digital literacy, critical thinking skills, and the confidence to question what they see and hear.
It is both tragic and dangerous that we are increasingly failing to do so.
The most alarming reality is that the number of schools across the UK marking Holocaust Memorial Day has halved over the past …
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