Andrew Marr: ‘Intense block thinking is the original sin in European history’

AFT’s 2024/25 report revealed that after attending its programmes, more than 90 per cent of participants developed more positive attitudes to at least one other social group, and more than 80 per cent said they felt more confident to challenge prejudice.

Over 137,000 young people across 272 schools participated in the programme during the 2024/25 academic year.

The charity empowers young people aged 9 to 15 to recognise and challenge all forms of prejudice through in-person and online knowledge and skill sessions, trips to Auschwitz and the house in Amsterdam where Anne Frank and her family hid, and peer-to-peer teaching sessions.

The report, authored by Dr Katie Goodbun and Prof Dominic Abrams of the University of Kent, also showed that the largest improvement in attitudes was towards Jewish people, with 64.6 per cent of participants saying they felt more positive towards the community after taking part in AFT programmes.

Dr Goodbun said that “childhood and adolescence are the key periods for attitude development”, and that rising levels of prejudice meant that “the work of the trust is more important than it’s ever been”.

She also revealed that some of their report had been published in peer reviewed journals, which “adds another layer of rigour and robustness to the work we do with the trust”.

Minister of state for school standards Georgia Gould, who spoke at the event (photo: Julian Coleman)[Missing Credit]

Marr, who came to the event directly from hosting his show on LBC Radio, specified that Anne Frank was extremely adept at “breaking through that sense of the other”.

He also talked about the importance of learning about the Holocaust, saying that he had known about Anne Frank from “as early as I can remember”, and that her diary “was in the house for me and my sisters, and my parents – with no Jewish background or heritage at all – talked a lot about the Holocaust”.

“Both my parents lost quite a lot of relatives in the First and Second World Wars and they staggered out of it somewhat traumatised by the experience of the war, always asking themselves ‘What was it for?’, ‘Was it really necessary?’, and ‘What was it about?’”, he said.

He continued: “I think the horror of the Holocaust gave them a very clear and easy answer to that, and they made sure their children were brought up understanding – which I think is an extraordinary privilege and these days, quite unusual.

“If there is one lesson from the work that the trust is doing, it is that history is the essential ingredient without which a civilised society cannot continue.”

The reception was sponsored by Alex Sobel, who is the Labour MP for Leeds Central and Headingley and the trade envoy for Ukraine.

He said that “education and early intervention really matters – teaching young people critical analysis, resilience, separating fact from fiction is hugely important”.

He also recounted antisemitism that he – “as a Jewish MP” – had personally experienced at the hands of a constituent.

“I received thousands of abusive messages from a constituent who, last December, was given an eight-week custodial sentence [for it], and he has a restraining order [against seeing me]… The risk of othering and simplifying narratives pervading society is all too real.”

Alex Sobel MP (photo: Julian Coleman)[Missing Credit]

The minister of state for school standards, Georgia Gould, also spoke at the event, saying that the “most important thing is to tackle the root causes and that’s why the work the trust does is so important”.

The MP for Queen’s Park and Maida Vale added that “the fact that [Anne Frank] wrote about [her hope for] future generations is deeply inspirational”.

A highlight of the evening was hearing from ambassadors who had graduated from the programme in recent years.

Olivia said that AFT had allowed her to “connect to people with shared passions and experiences”, and that “sharing knowledge with each other really strengthened my confidence and my desire to solve antisemitism and all forms of prejudice”.

She said she wanted to “build a world where Anne’s dreams of world peace and tolerance are not just a hope but a reality”.

Another ambassador, Hamza, said: “The responsibility [the programme] places on young people, trusting them with such powerful stories… makes the trust truly special”.

AFT ambassadors Hamza and Olivia (photo: Julian Coleman)[Missing Credit]

The trust’s CEO, Dan Green, also spoke at the event, telling the audience that the report “shows both the scale of the challenge and the urgency of the work ahead”.

Chair of trustees, Nicola Cobbold, added: “Our approach is rooted in research and evidence”, and that she has “hope, because the data tells [us] and we see with our own eyes that change is possible”.

She said the trust was currently postponing or turning away schools away they didn’t have the resources to fulfil the demand.

She also announced seven new honorary patrons of the trust: actress Dame Joanna Lumley; author Sir Michael Morpurgo; and Holocaust survivors Arek Hersh MBE, Martin Stern MBE, Eva Clarke BEM, Mala Tribich MBE, and Max Snijders.

Holocaust survivor and AFT honorary patron Mala Tribich MBE (photo: Julian Coleman)[Missing Credit]

The event coincided with the day the Prime Minister announced a ban on social media for under-16s in the UK.

Marr said Sir Keir Starmer’s decision was “brave and necessary” and social media has been like “a giant social experiment on the brains of a generation of children”.

He described the experiment as feeding young people with “hatred, lies about other people, pornography, scenes of extreme violence, competition about body sizes – and then stand[ing] back to see what happens”.

Gould added: “Holocaust denial is on the rise. There are too many young people with a barrage of misinformation that they see on their phones.”

To read the Anne Frank Trust's impact report for 2024/25, click here.