The Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research consists of representatives of government, as well as governmental and non-governmental organizations. Its purpose is to place political and social leaders' support behind the need for Holocaust education, remembrance, and research both nationally and internationally.

Initiated by Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson in 1998, the Task Force currently has twenty-seven member countries: Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. Professor Yehuda Bauer, former chair of the Yad Vashem Research Institute in Jerusalem, is the Task Force's Honorary Chairman.

Membership in the Task Force is open to all countries. Members must be committed to the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, and must accept the principles adopted by the Task Force regarding membership. They must also be committed to the implementation of national policies and programs in support of Holocaust education, remembrance, and research. The governments comprising the Task Force agree on the importance of encouraging all archives, both public and private, to make their holdings on the Holocaust more widely accessible. The Task Force also encourages appropriate forms of Holocaust remembrance.

Countries wishing to create programs in Holocaust education or to further develop their existing information materials and activities in this area are invited to work together with the Task Force. To this end Liaison Projects can be established between countries and the Task Force for long-term cooperation. Such cooperation is mutually beneficial to all concerned.

The first Liaison Project, with the Czech Republic, began in 1999. Within this project’s framework, a national teacher training program at the Terezin Memorial has been developed, and Czech teachers have received advanced training at the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., and Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. The project also includes cooperation with Roma cultural organizations. The experience with the Czech Republic has served as a model for work in other countries. The Task Force currently has a formal liaison relationship with Canada and observer relationship with Finland, Ireland, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey. The Task Force has also established working groups in regard to memorials, information projects, research, and education.

The Task Force currently has a formal liaison relationship with Finland, Ireland, Serbia, and Slovenia and observer relationship with Portugal, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Turkey.

The Task Force has also established specialized committees in regards to antisemitism and Holocaust denial, the situation of the Roma, memorial sites, information projects, comparative genocide, and special challenges in Holocaust education.

The website of the Task Force (http://www.holocausttaskforce.org/) maintains an international directory of organizations in Holocaust education, remembrance, and research; an international calendar of events; a directory of archives; listings of remembrance and education activities; as well as additional information about the Task Force.

MEMBERSHIP AND FUNCTIONING

The Working Groups of the International Task Force are: