The work must go on: 25 years of the Stockholm Declaration
This reflection looks back at the 2000 Stockholm Declaration, whose principles have shaped Holocaust education, research, and remembrance globally. While IHRA’s work has since grown to include new focus areas and tools, the Declaration remains a foundational document in building international commitment.
On 26 January 2000, representatives from nearly 50 governments gathered in Stockholm for a defining moment in international Holocaust remembrance. Survivors sat alongside scholars, and heads of state and government– witnesses to history and those entrusted with its preservation.
The Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust was the first major international conference of the new millennium–and amongthe first to bridge the gap between academic expertise and political decision–making. It also marked the first time that governments–regardless of their past–collectively recognized their shared responsibility in ensuring that Holocaust remembrance remained both a political and a moral priority.
Participants at the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust in Sweden, January 27–29, 2000
The leaders who gathered there understood that memory is not self-sustaining; it must be actively propagated. Twenty-five years on, we look back at the Forum to understand not just what was achieved, but what remains at stake. The commitments made in Stockholm were never meant to be the final word – they marked the beginning of a long-term effort.
The work had only just begun.
The Call to Action
For former Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson, the Forum was the culmination of a personal reckoning. His call to action had come years earlier. A visit to the former Neuengamme concentration camp, near Hamburg, left Persson deeply unsettled. Walking through the site of forced labor, mass suffering, and systematic brutality, Persson was confronted with the scale of Nazi crimes – and the responsibility of remembering them. Around the same time, far-right extremism was on the rise – young men marching in brown shirts, their chants disturbingly reminiscent of the Nazi era. But the final wake-up call arrived closer to home in 1997, when a survey in Sweden revealed that many schoolchildren doubted the Holocaust had even happened.
Determined to act, Persson launched Living History (Levande Historia), an educational campaign that distributed over 1.3 million copies of the book Tell Ye Your Children to Swedish households. But he quickly realized that education alone was not enough – Holocaust remembrance had to be an international, political commitment.
In April 1998, Persson wrote to US President Bill Clinton and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, urging them to join him in a global effort to strengthen Holocaust education. They agreed, setting in motion what would become the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust.
Then Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson at the Stockholm Forum
Setting the Course
By May 1998, representatives from Sweden, UK, and the US met in Stockholm to lay the groundwork for the Forum, and for what would later become the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).
Among the key figures shaping this initiative was historian late Prof. Yehuda Bauer, who was to become the intellectual architect of the Stockholm Declaration. By the time the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education Remembrance and Research (ITF) – the precursor to IHRA – held its first meeting in June 1998, Germany, Israel, and Poland had joined.
Professor Yehuda Bauer, former Honorary Chairman of the IHRA, at the Forum (front left)
In December that year, at the Washington conference on Jewish assets stolen during the Holocaust, these nations took a decisive step, issuing a joint declaration that reaffirmed the urgency of Holocaust education, remembrance, and research.
“Holocaust education, remembrance, and research strengthen humanity’s ability to absorb and learn from the dark lessons of the past, so that we can ensure that similar horrors are never again repeated.”
The stage was set for the Stockholm Forum.
Bearing Witness
In January 2000, world leaders – including 23 Heads of State or Government and 14 Deputy Prime Ministers or Ministers – gathered in Stockholm, not just to acknowledge the past, but to commit to how it would be remembered.Among those present waslate Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate. His words hung in the air long after he spoke them: “Not to transmit an experience is to betray it.”
Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate, at the Stockholm Forum
“Not to transmit an experience is to betray it.”
Across the same room was another figure who understood the weight of that responsibility: Hannah Lessing. As Secretary General of Austria’s National Fund for Victims of National Socialism, she had spent years working directly with survivors, ensuring they received restitution and recognition. For her, like many in the room, this work was not abstract. It was deeply personal. The Holocaust had left scars on her own family; her grandmother was murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau, her great-grandmother starved in Theresienstadt, and her father survived in exile in the British Mandate of Palestine.
“I learned so much from survivors,”Lessing, who now serves on IHRA’s Executive Board reflected. “They don’t want revenge – they want dignity. They want their stories to be heard, and their suffering acknowledged. And that is what the Stockholm Declaration ultimately did: it made governments take responsibility for this memory.”
They [survivors] don’t want revenge – they want dignity. They want their stories to be heard, and their suffering acknowledged.
Hannah Lessing, Co-Head of the Austrian Delegation to the IHRA and Member of the IHRA’s Executive Board, at the ITF 2008 Linz Plenary (front right)
Hope and Political Reality
The Stockholm Declaration was uncontested when presented, but its implementation in the years that followed was not wholly without challenges. IHRA’s unique structure – bringing together Holocaust scholars, educators, and political representatives – became its greatest strength. Yet, it also introduced complexities.
Consensus-building – where political priorities and historical expertise had to align – often meant slow progress. Some governments initially also resisted acknowledging aspects of their Holocaust history, particularly around collaboration, and negotiations could be difficult. Yet, it was precisely this structure – where experts challenged policymakers with historical evidence, and policymakers turned knowledge into political action – that ensured IHRA’s work was not just about commemoration but about shaping real-world policy.
Dr. Kathrin Meyer, who was IHRA Secretary General from 2008–2025, was instrumental in turning the Declaration’s commitments into concrete policy and action. Reflecting on the significance of the Declaration, she emphasized its role not just as a guiding principle but as a binding commitment. “The Stockholm Forum was a breakthrough – it brought experts and policymakers to the same table. This wasn’t just about governments pledging commitments; it was about ensuring they had the historical expertise to implement them responsibly,” she noted.
Ensuring that all countries had an equal voice meant that commitments made under the Stockholm Declaration held weight, even when political tensions arose.
At the IHRA 2024 London Plenary. From left to right: Dr. Robert Williams, Advisor to the IHRA; Lord Eric Pickles, Former UK Presidency Chair; Dr. Kathrin Meyer, Former Secretary General; and Andrew Burns, Member of the IHRA Executive Board and Chair of the Grant Review Committee and Strategy Implementation Board
As early as 2009, as the ITF marked its 10-year anniversary, Dr. Meyer and others leading the effort then understood that the road ahead would not be easy. The introduction to its anniversary publication reflected on the challenges they foresaw: the risk of fatigue in dealing with the topic, political resistance, educational gaps, and the persistent danger that, if people were permitted to forget, the warning of the Holocaust would lose its power.
Recognizing this threat, IHRA member countries came together in 2020 to adopt the Ministerial Declaration, a reaffirmation of the Stockholm Declaration’s core principles. The declaration underscored the dangers of Holocaust distortion and the urgent need to counter efforts that manipulate history for political ends. It served as a reminder that, even decades later, governments must remain proactive in protecting the facts.
Adoption of the 2020 Ministerial Declaration
Returning to London: the challenge of memory in a politicized world
In February 2025, under the UK Presidency, the IHRA returned to London to mark 25 years of the Stockholm Declaration – a city where, in 1998, its journey first took shape with the ITF’s inaugural meeting. Holocaust survivor Mala Tribich reminded those present, “we do not tell our stories for ourselves. We tell them so that the next generation understands what happens when hatred goes unchecked.”
“We do not tell our stories for ourselves. We tell them so that the next generation understands what happens when hatred goes unchecked.”
Paul Boateng, the Head of the UK Delegation to the Stockholm Forum, emphasized why Holocaust remembrance remains as critical as ever.
“We stand at a moment when history is not only being forgotten but actively rewritten. The Stockholm Declaration was meant to guard against this – but that work is far from finished.”
Michaela Küchler, IHRA’s Secretary General, highlighted the increasing politicization of memory: “We always knew remembrance was important. But today, we have to fight for it in ways we never expected. When you see Holocaust commemorations being questioned, or survivors being told it is ‘too political’ to have them speak, you realize how fragile this memory really is.”
Michaela was no stranger to the IHRA’s mission when she stepped into the position of Secretary General this year. As Chair of the German IHRA Presidency in 2020, she led the alliance through an unprecedented year – one in which all collaboration had to take place online for the first time. During her time as Chair, IHRA not only adapted but advanced its work, securing the adoption of the working definition of antigypsyism/anti-Roma discrimination and establishing the Global Task Force Against Holocaust Distortion.
Secretary General Michaela Küchler at the IHRA 2020 Leipzig Plenary, where she was Chair of the German IHRA Presidency
Reflecting on the future of Holocaust remembrance, Michaela reinforced the urgency of action, stating, “The question is no longer whether Holocaust remembrance is necessary – it is how we ensure it remains effective for future generations.”
“The question is no longer whether Holocaust remembrance is necessary – it is how we ensure it remains effective for future generations.”
Twenty-five years after Stockholm, the responsibility governments embraced in January 2000 persists. The questions before us are as pressing as ever. How do we ensure that Holocaust remembrance remains relevant for new generations? How do we counter distortion in an era where misinformation and hatred spread faster than facts? And how do we ensure that the commitments made in Stockholm remain more than words on a page?
The answers will not come easily, but the imperative for the international community remains the same.
The work must go on.
Members of the IHRA at the IHRA 2024 Glasgow Plenary
The founding document of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, the Stockholm Declaration outlines the principles that guide the organization and its Member Countries.
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