OPINION: It’s high time we sorted out this memorial muddle
"If ever this project comes to fruition, there will be no survivors left to see it," writes Jenni Frazer on London's proposed Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre
Jenni Frazer is a freelance journalist
Walking around central London and admiring the beautiful buildings and architecture with which the capital is blessed, it’s sometimes possible to forget the presumably endless wrangling which preceded their completion and public unveiling.
Nelson’s Column, for example, was first thought of in 1838 and took three long years from 1840 to 1843 to build, and the lions at its foot with which we are all so familiar today didn’t arrive until 1867. Cleopatra’s Needle on the Embankment was given to Britain by Egypt in 1819 – but didn’t actually make it to London from Alexandria until 1877.
All of which is by way of saying the row over the Britain’s proposed Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre – which has been on the table since 2014 – is nothing new. There has been fierce opposition almost from the off, with leading Jewish voices in the vanguard.
I dare say some imagined the memorial would be an attractive bandwagon for “those who hate Jews more than is strictly necessary”, as a former editor of mine once phrased it.
But it’s people like Baroness Deech, utterly comfortable in her Jewish identity, who have been the most outspoken and trenchant in their opposition, primarily in objection to the proposed site of Victoria Tower Gardens, just by the Houses of Parliament.
The baroness is not opposed to a memorial as such. It would be bizarre if she were: her late father, Josef Fraenkel, fled first Vienna and then Prague as the Nazis made their way across central Europe, before eventually finding a haven in the UK.
But, she says, the alleged “public benefit” of a Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in Westminster is “in part guesswork and in part a political decision, unrelated to the benefit of the victims or their descendants”.
Other opponents don’t see the need for a new memorial at all, given there is already a wonderfully detailed permanent Holocaust exhibit at the Imperial War Museum. Or, if the government has money to spend on a Holocaust memorial, why not give it to the National Holocaust Centre in Nottingham?
Despite a slew of arcane fights between the government, the courts and Westminster Council, at times like a bad Punch and Judy match, the weirdly-named Department for Levelling Up, headed by Michael Gove, seems determined to get its way and forge ahead with building the centre.
Meanwhile, Helen Monger, director of the London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust charity, and architect Barbara Weiss now say the project should be split into two.
Despite a slew of arcane fights between the government, the courts and Westminster Council, at times like a bad Punch and Judy match, the weirdly-named Department for Levelling Up, headed by Michael Gove, seems determined to get its way and forge ahead with building the centre.
They propose a learning centre at Parliament’s College Green, currently the site for every political TV interview, and a smaller memorial at Victoria Tower Gardens.
I don’t think the Weiss/Monger compromise is likely to happen. What is sadly evident is if ever this project does comes to fruition, there will be no survivors there to witness it or open it. Not even the Kindertransport members are going to be around by the time bureaucracy gets its act together.
This week I had an interesting conversation with Sir Andrew Burns, once Britain’s ambassador to Israel. Sir Andrew was Britain’s special envoy for post-Holocaust issues from 2010-2015 and latterly has been involved in promoting the work of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. His is a pragmatic and objective voice, I think, and he understands the issues.
His suggestion is rather than build a memorial, consideration is given perhaps to funding a chair in Holocaust studies. I think that’s an excellent idea, and a much better way for the government to spend its money.
No reason, of course, there couldn’t be both, but an academic chair, in the first instance, is much likelier to happen. And quicker, almost certainly, than Nelson or Cleopatra.
- Jenni Frazer is a freelance journalist
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