HISTORY

In response to the inclusion of the study of the Holocaust into the national high school curriculum, the South African Holocaust and Genocide Foundation (SAHGF) was established in 2007 by the Board of Trustees of the Cape Town Holocaust and Genocide Centre (which had been active since 1999). The SAHGF incorporated representatives from Durban and Johannesburg to provide support for the curriculum through the development of classroom support materials and the facilitation of national in-service teacher training, adult programmes and seminars, as well as educational and philosophical direction for the country’s Holocaust Centres. The Durban Holocaust and Genocide Centre, was from the start, immensely enriched and empowered by the generous sharing of funding, resources, archives, experience and wisdom within the SAHGF. This was, and continues to be, particularly true of my talented colleagues Tali Nates, Director JHGC, and Richard Freedman, Director CTHGC. This unique attitude of sharing material and intellectual assets among education centres – rather than competing with each other – enhances all the centres.

CENTRES

The foundation has three Centres in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town. Our Centres:

• Serve as a memorial to the six million Jews who were killed in the Holocaust and all victims of Nazism.
• Teaches about the consequences of prejudice, racism, antisemitism, xenophobia and homophobia, and the dangers of indifference, apathy and silence.

VISION

The South African Holocaust & Genocide Foundation is dedicated to creating a more caring and just society in which human rights and diversity are respected and valued.

MISSION 

The South African Holocaust & Genocide Foundation strives to further Holocaust education in order to:

• Support the building of a human rights culture and to encourage respect for diversity.
• Develop an understanding of the past so that the moral and ethical issues raised can be instructive in dealing with contemporary human rights abuses, for example, xenophobia, racism and bigotry.
• Teaches about the consequences of prejudice, racism, antisemitism, xenophobia and homophobia,
  and the dangers of indifference, apathy and silence.
• Encourage social activism and a greater individual responsibility to building the community.
• Encourage empathy and compassion and a deeper understanding of what it means to be human.