Survivor’s testimony leaves Lady Starmer visibly moved at HET Labour conference event
Annick Lever BEM shared her powerful testimony to a full room at the Liverpool conference
Lady Victoria Starmer appeared visibly moved as she listened to survivor Annick Lever BEM share her powerful testimony at the Holocaust Educational Trust’s fringe event at the Labour Party’s conference.
The Prime Minister’s wife attended Sunday afternoon’s packed event in Liverpool to highlight her own commitment to the vital importance she places on Holocaust education.
Newly appointed Schools Minister Georgia Gould OBE MP also addressed the packed room of parliamentarians and activists, stressing both her proud Jewish identity and determination to ensure children learn the lessons of the Shoah in today’s increasingly divided society.
Lever, who was born in November 1943 in Nazi-occupied France to a Jewish mother and a Catholic father, recalled how after the German invasion in 1940 her family had to register, declare all their possessions, and, from 1942, wear a yellow star on their clothing.
Their identification papers were stamped with the word ‘Jew’, and a curfew was imposed, preventing Jewish people from being out of their homes in the evening.
In 1944, Annick, along with her mother, aunt with a baby, and grandparents, were taken to the local prison and kept there pending deportation to Drancy (the main transit camp in France).
Her father, along with some friends, as a non-Jew and a member of the Resistance, was able to smuggle Annick and her baby cousin out of the prison.
The rest of the family was transported and taken from Drancy by cattle train to Auschwitz-Birkenau on 10th February.
They did not survive, and later Annick learned that her mother most certainly died on the journey.
However, in a message for attendees of Sunday’s moving event to take home with them, Lever urged everyone to ignore the color of people’s skin or their religion and recognize that “we are all human beings, and we must learn to respect each other for who we are.”
She added that her mother had perished because the Nazis judged that her “only crime was being born Jewish.”
Lever said she recognised that we are living in times when it is particularly hard not to judge others due to their religion or identity, but she said avoiding such judgments was central to the message she wished to deliver.
In her well-received speech, Labour minister Gould spoke of her own admiration for the work of HET, and spoke of how her Jewish mother had taught her the lessons of the Holocaust while she was growing up.
Praising the Trust’s work, Schools Minister Georgia Gould OBE MP said: “I’ve had the privilege of hearing from survivors. I think you’re completely changed by every one of those stories – by how ordinary people can commit terrible evil, but also by how ordinary people, like survivors, can find hope afterwards and tell their stories every day to build a better world and stop things like the Holocaust happening again.
“So I think it is critical for children to learn about this, and that’s why it is on the national curriculum, and why the work of the Holocaust Educational Trust is so important to keep these stories alive.”
Holocaust Educational Trust Chief Executive Karen Pollock CBE said “Annick shared her remarkable testimony at our fringe event, leaving a powerful impression on all who attended.
“Annick spoke about the events that led to her survival, but also the tragic loss of her mother, aunt, and grandparents, who were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and murdered.
“Every year, tens of thousands of young people hear from Holocaust survivors through our Outreach Programme, and it is vital that the country’s leaders, decision makers, and opinion formers also hear Annick’s story.
“Her experiences are a stark reminder of what can happen when antisemitism and hatred go unchecked, and of the responsibility people in public office have to ensure that the horrors of the past are never repeated.”
Lever and her husband also met with Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson ahead of the event.
Lady Starmer and the PM had visited Auschwitz-Birkenau in January.
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