Yad Vashem to open its first Holocaust education centre outside Israel, in Munich

Yad Vashem, Israel's national Holocaust memorial and research institution, announced on 28 May 2026 that it will open an education centre in Munich, its first outside Israel in the 73 years since it was founded. A smaller extension is planned in Leipzig, in the eastern state of Saxony. The centres are expected to begin work within about three years.

The Munich centre will stand at Karolinenplatz in the heart of the city. Yad Vashem said it chose Munich after a nationwide review because of its educational infrastructure, its central location in Europe and its history as the birthplace of the Nazi Party. The Leipzig site will offer interactive learning spaces for teachers and students. Both will be developed with German partner organisations, and the project has the backing of the German federal government and state leaders.

The idea was first raised in 2023 at a meeting between Yad Vashem's chairman, Dani Dayan, and then-chancellor Olaf Scholz, and later won the support of Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Wenzel Michalski, chair of the Berlin-based Friends of Yad Vashem, whose late father Franz was a Holocaust survivor who spoke to German school groups, took part in the talks. The Conference of European Rabbis, which moved its headquarters from London to Munich in 2023, said it looked forward to working with the centre.

Dayan said that historically grounded Holocaust education was more important than ever as denial and distortion spread. Michalski noted that the last eyewitnesses are dying, making new ways of teaching the history essential. Germany's education minister, Karin Prien, said many young Germans still know too little about the Shoah, and Saxony's state rabbi, Zsolt Balla, called the Leipzig branch a strong signal for remembrance and Jewish life.