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

‘In a world without Holocaust survivors, one needs new ways to tell the story,’ says head of Berlin-based Friends of Yad Vashem; extension also planned in Germany’s Leipzig

By Zev Stub

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and JTA 29 May 2026, 6:51 am

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People visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial museum in Jerusalem, on January 9, 2025. (Menahem Kahana / AFP)

Yad Vashem has selected Munich as the site for its first Holocaust education center outside Israel, with plans for the new institution to strengthen Holocaust education and combat rising antisemitism and historical distortion in Europe.

The center will be built at Karolinenplatz in central Munich, with support from the German government, and is expected to open within three years, Yad Vashem announced Thursday. Munich was chosen after extensive nationwide research because of its educational infrastructure, strategic location and historical significance as the birthplace of the Nazi Party.

The initiative was first proposed during a 2023 meeting between Yad Vashem chairman Dani Dayan and then-German chancellor Olaf Scholz. It has since received backing from Chancellor Friedrich Merz and state leaders across Germany.

The Jerusalem-based Holocaust remembrance institution said the center would serve audiences across Germany and neighboring countries. An additional extension is planned in Leipzig, in eastern Germany’s Saxony state, featuring interactive learning spaces for educators and students.

The project comes at a critical time as the world moves further from the era of living Holocaust survivors, said Dayan.

“Historically grounded Holocaust education is more important than ever,” Dayan said, warning of growing Holocaust denial, distortion and antisemitism. “Working together with our German partners, this center will help ensure that the truth of the Holocaust is preserved and passed on to future generations.”

Yad Vashem chairman Dani Dayan (R) stands with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz at the museum’s Hall of Names in Jerusalem on December 7, 2025. (JOHN WESSELS / POOL / AFP)

Wenzel Michalski, chair of the Berlin-based Friends of Yad Vashem, participated in talks leading to the decision.

“We’re coming to an era where the witnesses are dying,” Michalski said. His late father, Franz, spoke with many school groups in Germany about his experiences during the Holocaust.

“In a world without Holocaust survivors, one needs new ways to tell the story,” said Michalski. “It is the chief obligation and task of Yad Vashem” to ensure that they do.

German Education Minister Karen Prien, who has Jewish roots, said that one of the goals of the centers is to help “combat antisemitism across Germany and Europe.” She added that many young people in the country “still know too little about the Shoah.”

The Conference of European Rabbis, which moved to Munich from London in 2023, said it looked forward to working together with the new center.

And Rabbi Zsolt Balla, State Rabbi of Saxony, said the decision to open an extension in Leipzig “sends a strong signal in support of a culture of remembrance, education and the protection of Jewish life.”