Oversight, funding and content of Holocaust education delivery in primary schools: FOI release

Information requested

The oversight, funding, and content of Holocaust education delivered within Scottish primary schools under the purview of the Scottish Government.

1. Curriculum Oversight & Source Attribution
a. All recorded information relating to the Scottish Government’s role in approving, funding, or endorsing Holocaust education materials for primary schools.
b. Source citations for historical claims presented to pupils aged 7–11, including the “six million” figure and its justification.
c. Any documentation referencing the Vision Schools Scotland programme and its partnership with the Holocaust Educational Trust.

2. Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria
a. Internal correspondence or policy documents discussing the inclusion or exclusion of:

• Zionist collaboration (e.g. Rudolf Kastner case)
• Torah-aligned Jewish communities
• Revisions to Auschwitz death toll figures
• Jewish dissenters and revisionist scholars (e.g. David Cole, Norman Finkelstein)

3. External Influence & Funding
a. Recorded information regarding partnerships, grants, or resource provision from external organizations, including but not limited to:

• Holocaust Educational Trust
• Chabad Lubavitch Scotland
• Union of Jewish Students
• Anne Frank Trust UK
• Memoranda of understanding, advisory roles, or curriculum shaping agreements with said bodies.

4. Review Mechanisms & Public Accountability
a. Any internal reviews, audits, or consultations regarding the neutrality, accuracy, or completeness of Holocaust education materials.
b. Correspondence regarding concerns raised by educators, parents, or third parties about curriculum bias, omission, or politicization.

Response

To respond to your request, I have detailed the provided information for each question and subquestion below (where we hold the information). I have attached four documents which answers parts of your request with an explanation provided below.

Question 1. Curriculum Oversight & Source Attribution

You requested the following:

1a. All recorded information relating to the Scottish Government’s role in approving, funding, or endorsing Holocaust education materials for primary schools.

Our response:

I enclose a copy of correspondence regarding Holocaust Education Packs which were produced in 2000-2001 for Primary Schools which were aimed at primary 6 and primary 7 (Annex A). Please note this is a partial release as information that did not fall under the scope of this FOI was not included.

An exemption under section s.38(1) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. names and contact details of individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principes in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

In 2021 Scottish Government provided Vision Schools Scotland with grant funding where one of the target/milestones was to produce a resource based on the testimony of Holocaust survivor Ernest Levy.

This was to be made available to GTCS-registered teachers.

Please note that the below extracted information has been provided instead of releasing the full documents as the rest of the information within the documents are out-with scope of your original request.

Extract from Vision Schools Scotland Offer of Grant 2021-22 document

• “The development of a resource based on the testimony of Holocaust survivor Ernest Levy to be made available to GTCS-registered teachers”

Extract from Vision Schools Offer of Grant 2022-23 document

• “The delivery of the second edition of the Ernest Levy (LTS) teaching resource”.

Extract from Vision Schools Offer of Grant 2023-24 document

• “The launch and promotion of the second edition of the Ernest Levy (LTS) teaching resource”

Extract from Vision Schools Offer of Grant 2025-26 document

• “Complete a Review of the teacher guides for the Marianne Grant and Ernest Levy resources to ascertain required updates which will address broader curricular changes and the rise in antisemitism in the UK, and complete these updates, providing updated resources by end March 2026”

In addition, I have enclosed a copy of the Ministerial Foreword created in June 2023 for the Ernest Levy Resource (Annex B).

I have also enclosed a redacted copy of Vision Schools Scotland request for £500 to support a schools’ reading and writing competition of Holocaust Literature (Annex C) which also related to primary schools. An exemption under section s.38(1) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested because it is personal data of a third party, i.e. names and contact details of individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principes in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

You requested the following:

1b Source citations for historical claims presented to pupils aged 7-11, including the “six million” figure and its justification.

Our response:

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. The reason why we do not have the information is because we do not store citations for historical claims presented to pupils aged 7-11, including the “six million” figure and its justification.

You requested the following:

1c Any documentation referencing the Vision Schools Scotland programme and its partnership with the Holocaust Educational Trust.

Our response:

I have provided an extract from the Scottish Government’s Vision Schools Scotland Offer of Grant 2025/26. I have not released the full document as most of the information is not within scope of your request.

• Maintain and develop partnerships with organisations as follows: Education Scotland, The Scottish Jewish Archive Centre and Scottish Jewish Heritage Centre, Holocaust Educational Trust, Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT), Scotdec, School Library and Information Council and the Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) Steering Committee in Scotland;

Question 2. Inclusion/Exclusion Criteria

You requested the following:

2a. Internal correspondence or policy documents discussing the inclusion or exclusion of:

• Zionist collaboration (e.g. Rudolf Kastner case)
• Torah-aligned Jewish communities
• Revisions to Auschwitz death toll figures
• Jewish dissenters and revisionist scholars (e.g. David Cole, Norman Finkelstein)

Our response:

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. The reason why we don’t have the information is because the information requested does not exist within our file storage.

Question 3. External Influence & Funding

You requested the following:

3a. Recorded information regarding partnerships, grants, or resource provision from external organizations, including but not limited to:

• Holocaust Educational Trust
• Chabad Lubavitch Scotland
• Union of Jewish Students
• Anne Frank Trust UK
• Memoranda of understanding, advisory roles, or curriculum shaping agreements with said bodies.

Our response:

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. The reason we do not have this information is because the Scottish Government does not hold information on partnerships, grants or resources provision from those organisations to others.

Question 4. Review Mechanisms & Public Accountability

You requested the following:

4a. Any internal reviews, audits, or consultations regarding the neutrality, accuracy, or completeness ofHolocaust education materials.

Our response:

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. The reason we do not have this information is because the Scottish does not carry out internal reviews, audits or consultations regarding the neutrality, accuracy, or completeness of Holocaust education materials.

You requested the following:

4b. Correspondence regarding concerns raised by educators, parents, or third parties about curriculum bias, omission, or politicization.

Our response:

I have enclosed a copy of redacted minutes with Education Scotland and Jewish Teacher’s Network (Annex D). An exemption under section s.38(1) of FOISA applies to some of the information you have requested because it is personal data of a third party, ie names and contact details of individuals, and disclosing it would contravene the data protection principes in Article 5(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation and in section 34(1) of the Data Protection Act 2018. This exemption is not subject to the ‘public interest test’, so we are not required to consider if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202500481400 - Information released - Annex A - D

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