On 13 July 2023, the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science submitted to the European Union the step 1 application for EHRI, the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure, to establish itself as an European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC).

“With this submission, we are well on our way towards EHRI transforming itself from a series of successful projects that have been running since 2010 into a permanent European organization that will help secure the future of trans-national Holocaust research, commemoration and education,” explains Dr. Reto Speck, Co-Director of EHRI.

Shortly before the Step 1 submission, the interim General Assembly (iGA) decided unanimously to approve all the necessary documents for this first part of the application process. The iGA comprises of representatives of the 11 prospective founding member countries of the ERIC and is the key committee that prepares and evaluates documentation for the process of establishing EHRI-ERIC. EHRI started as a project in 2010 and is now in its third phase with 27 partners in 15 European countries, Israel and the United States. The Dutch NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies has been coordinator of the projects and the Netherlands has been chosen as the hosting country of the ERIC.

The European Commission will assess the Step 1 application by obtaining the views of independent experts. It is expected that after 3 months, EHRI will be informed of the results of the assessment. Taking into account necessary modifications, EHRI will then progress to Step 2, which is a formal request to the Commission to set up the ERIC, signed by all future members of the ERIC.

“After approval of the European Commission, EHRI will then be ready to establish itself as an ERIC,” says Reto Speck, “It is our sincere wish to launch EHRI-ERIC by January 2025, the 80th-anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.”