Over 150 people gathered in Parliament for the Holocaust Educational Trust’s annual reception, ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day. 

They heard harrowing testimony from Polish-born survivor Janine Webber, who lost most of her family in the Nazi genocide.

Introducing herself as “an ordinary person with something extraordinary to share”, Ms Webber silenced the room as she recalled how, even before she had become a teenager, her family were forced to hide from the Nazis, escaping a ghetto and deportation. 

"Humans can have an extraordinary impact, an impact which can either be courageous or cowardly, loving or hateful, creative or destructive,” she said. “I share my testimony to remember the six million Jewish people who were murdered and to honour those who helped me to survive.” 

The keynote speaker was Conservative Party chairman Nadhim Zahawi, who shared his experience of visiting Auschwitz for the first time, describing it as “haunting”. 

He added: “Each and every one of us has a role to play in speaking out against antisemitism. Every time we see it, we need to act on it. Even when it’s uncomfortable.” 

Echoing his sentiments, Education Minister Rob Halfon declared: “Young people must be taught about the history of the Holocaust. We have to work together to tackle antisemitism and all forms of hatred.” 

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle were also among the guests.

Holocaust Educational Trust chief executive Karen Pollock explained that the theme of this year’s HMD would be “ordinary people – a strange concept when we talk about the Holocaust. Because the Holocaust was extraordinary, an event unparalleled in human history.

“The lives that people lived under Nazi occupation, in ghettos and camps across Europe, were far from ordinary. And yet, the people that the Holocaust affected were ordinary.”