Press release

Secretary of State reaffirms commitment to Holocaust commemoration and education

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick reaffirms his support for the Memorial’s construction beside Parliament.

From:
Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (2018 to 2021), UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation, The Rt Hon Lord Pickles and The Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP
Published
12 February 2020
This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government
design for Holocaust Memorial
  • Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick reaffirms his support for the Memorial’s construction beside Parliament ahead of the Independent Planning Inspector’s Inquiry later this year
  • Westminster council hold procedural meeting on the Memorial’s planning application

Communities Secretary of State Robert Jenrick yesterday (11 February 2020) reaffirmed his commitment that the UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre will be built next to Parliament. 

The Memorial will be the focal point for national remembrance of the Holocaust and learning and is dedicated to the 6 million Jewish men, women and children murdered in the Holocaust and all other victims of the Nazis and their collaborators. The learning centre will also focus on subsequent genocides.

Last night Westminster City Council held an extraordinary meeting of its planning committee to hear the case for and against the Memorial before the proposal is heard by the Independent Planning Inspector later this year.

This procedural meeting will not decide the outcome of the Public Inquiry nor diminish the government’s commitment to its construction.

Communities Secretary Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP said:

2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. As fewer survivors remain with us it is more important than ever for us to come together to remember the 6 million Jewish men, women and children murdered during the Holocaust and all other victims of Nazi persecution.

The evil of the Holocaust must serve as a continual reminder to us all of why we need to make a stand against antisemitism, racism and hatred, whenever and wherever we find it.

The government remains implacably committed to the construction of the Holocaust Memorial and Education Centre right at the heart of our democracy, beside our national parliament to ensure that future generations never forget. No one, whether in national or local government should shirk their duty to deliver on the promise of this memorial, and the government certainly will not.

Attending today’s meeting at Westminster City Council to advocate for the Memorial and Learning Centre were Karen Pollock MBE and Holocaust Survivor Mala Tribich MBE. Ahead of the meeting last night they said:

Mala Tribich MBE – Holocaust Survivor

For decades, I have shared my story with tens of thousands of people across this country. But, the lessons of the Holocaust are yet to be learnt. Prejudice and discrimination still live on. A Memorial, now, at the heart of this country, next to Parliament, where decisions are made, will help us to learn the lessons that we have not done so far.

As the Holocaust moves further into history and we survivors become less able to share our testimonies this Memorial and Learning Centre will be a lasting legacy so that future generations will understand why it is important for people to remember the Holocaust, to learn from the past and stand up against injustice.

Karen Pollock MBE – Chief Executive, Holocaust Educational Trust

The Holocaust happened in our continent, in living memory. It is not a distant history. It is our history. We are the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the survivors, of the soldiers who brought about the end of the war and the liberation of the camps, of the nurses and doctors who helped to rebuild the survivors’ lives after their liberation. This is our story.

The reality is as the survivors become older, frailer and fewer, we have to preserve their stories, and the stories of the 6 million whose voices we will never hear, so that the next generation know what happened on this continent. Now, more than ever, we need this Memorial and Learning Centre.

Lord Eric Pickles co-chair of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation Advisory Board

While the announcement by Westminster City Council is no more than an expression of opinion, they should be thanked for their cooperation on technical aspects of the application, which will help the Secretary of State (or nominee) make the actual decision.

The key question is the national importance of the Memorial and Learning Centre, which underlines the wisdom of calling-in the application so that the government can properly consider its national importance. 

The nation needs this Memorial. It will stand next to Parliament as a permanent reminder that legislators always have a choice, either to protect or oppress human rights.

I’m encouraged by the government’s and the official opposition’s full commitment to the Memorial, and its location. The case for a national Holocaust Memorial next to Parliament is a strong one. The choice of location is in many ways the point.

Rt Hon Ed Balls co-chair of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation Advisory Board

It is now clear from all the representations that have been made over recent months, that there is deep and widespread support, in Parliament across all the political parties and more widely across the UK, for a national Holocaust Memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens. 

And while it is regrettable that Westminster City Council does not seem able to support the project, I am very confident that the compelling case for this national Memorial will be recognised when the final planning decision is taken by the Minister.

Seventy-five years on from the liberation of the Nazi death camps of Europe, it is deeply distressing that there are still people who try to diminish the gravity of what happened, or even try to deny that this systematic attempt to destroy an entire people actually took place at all. 

But in the decades to come, when survivors of the Holocaust are no longer with us to recount their experiences, the Memorial will ensure that their suffering and the terrible tragedy that they experienced, will never be forgotten.

Further information

In January 2016 the then Prime Minister announced that the chosen location for the Memorial was Victoria Tower Gardens, Westminster.

After an international competition, with 92 entries in total and ten finalists, Adjaye Associates, Ron Arad Architects and Gustafson Porter + Bowman were selected unanimously as the winning team, by a jury including the then Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, the Mayor of London, the Chief Rabbi, experts from architecture, art and design, and both first and second-generation Holocaust survivors. The announcement was made on 24 October 2017.

A planning application was submitted to Westminster City Council in December 2018. In November 2019 the Housing Minister decided to call in the planning application for determination at the national level because of the project’s significant effects beyond the immediate locality. There will now be a public inquiry chaired by a planning inspector.

The government committed £50 million in 2015 and in 2019 announced an additional £25 million of government money to be matched by charitable donations.

A time capsule will also be buried at the proposed site to remind future generations that survivors fought long and hard for this memorial.

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Published 12 February 2020

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