Opinion
The Shoah memorial’s proposed location speaks to the Holocaust’s unparalleled historical significance
The UK Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust issues, Lord Eric Pickles, responds to Baroness Ruth Deech
August 15, 2024 11:18
2 min read
The UK Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust issues, Lord Eric Pickles, responds to Baroness Ruth Deech
August 15, 2024 11:18Dear Ruth,
The location of the UK’s Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre is the only thing I have ever disagreed with you on. Since the October pogrom, we have participated together in the House of Lords, supporting Israel's right to defend itself and forcefully opposing the growth of antisemitism on British streets. I look forward to the Second Reading Debate of the Enabling Bill for the Memorial on the 4th of September.
I was more saddened than surprised by your comment piece, “The government must rethink its Shoah memorial,” which appeared in the Jewish Chronicle on August 8. Your opposition is based on a fundamental misinterpretation of the Learning Centre's purpose and content. Essentially, you oppose a concept and content no one intends to introduce.
The old and new governments have emphasised the importance of having the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre next to the Houses of Parliament. This prominent location immediately speaks of the unparalleled significance of the Holocaust and situates the Memorial at the centre of our national life.
We have repeatedly responded to security concerns – the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre will have security arrangements similar to the many other public buildings in Westminster. Both of us work in the number one terrorist target in the UK; to decide that the risk of demonstrations or acts of terrorism was too great would be equivalent to sub-contracting how we commemorate the Holocaust to Hamas and Hezbollah.
From the very beginning, the content of the proposed Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre has been in the hands of historians, not politicians. The team working on the content is headed up by internationally renowned curator Yehudit Shendar, formerly of Yad Vashem, alongside respected educator Martin Winstone and an academic advisory group headed by Ben Barkow CBE, the former director of the Wiener Library.
Equally, from the start, we have been very clear that to understand the devastation of the Holocaust on European Jewry, it is crucial to understand the vibrancy and breadth of Jewish life before the Holocaust. This is an integral part of the content of the Learning Centre.
Understanding antisemitism is at the core of our narrative. We are well aware of the long history of antisemitism in Britain and across the world. No Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre could exist without a clear understanding of the roots of antisemitism and how it mutates and adapts to circumstances.
We have pledged that the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre content will be ‘warts and all.’ There is no glorification of Britain’s role. There are no clean hands when it comes to the Holocaust. Our focus, for example, on that very British rescue, the Kindertransport, will not only focus on the positive rescue of 10,000 children but will ask why they were not allowed to be accompanied by their parents. We will not shy away from the fact that many of the parents were murdered at Maly Trostenets in Belarus.
We owe it to victims and survivors of the Holocaust to tell the unvarnished truth about what happened and why. As a country that rightly prides itself on its Second World War record, it does not mean that we should shy away from those moments when we could have done more. Today, at a time when other countries are seeking to rinse their history through the Holocaust, more than ever, truth matters. If we are to take our place among the nations that remember the Shoah, we must ensure that we give a complete account of our role during the period of the Holocaust.
Yours ever,
Eric