VOICE OF THE JEWISH NEWS: Holocaust memorial is 10 years on the drawing board

This Saturday, 27 January, is Holocaust Memorial Day. It also marks 10 years exactly since David Cameron, then prime minister, set up the Holocaust Commission. In a speech at Downing Street he said the commission would have the “sacred and vital task” of ensuring that Britain has a permanent, fitting memorial to the Holocaust as well as educational resources for future generations. He told the room of 50 survivors: “We will not let you down.” 

This newspaper has been a strong supporter of the project, as have the UK’s main communal institutions, including the Board of Deputies, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and the Holocaust Educational Trust. The aim of erecting a memorial within the lifetime of the last survivors is noble and just.

Ten years on, however, the project is still on the drawing board. Furthermore, it is being challenged in a series of hearings in the House of Commons.

It would be a mistake to build a memorial that is resented by its neighbours, and by survivors themselves

This week and last, MPs on the Holocaust Memorial Bill select committee heard evidence from architects, a terrorism expert and from members of the group Save Victoria Tower Gardens, the public park next to the Palace of Westminster that is the proposed site for a memorial and learning centre.

Those connected with the gardens’ Buxton Memorial Fountain, dedicated to the parliamentarians and others who fought to abolish slavery, have expressed concern about the size and location of the plans for a Holocaust memorial so close by.

Yesterday, adding to their evidence, was that of four survivors, the eldest of them 98-year-old Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, a former inmate of Auschwitz, who travelled to the Commons to make their objections heard.

This newspaper believes that a fitting national memorial to the Holocaust is indeed a sacred and vital task. It also believes that it would be a mistake to build a memorial that is resented by its neighbours, and by survivors themselves.

We hope the evidence will be listened to and all valid concerns are heeded.