“BEING of Jewish heritage myself, I cannot recall a time after I was not aware of the Holocaust,” the Bishop of Coventry, the Rt Revd Sophie Jelley, said in her maiden speech within the House of Lords on Monday, the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day.
Coventry, she said, was “a city of peace and reconciliation, with a powerful multicultural community and interfaith network”. She spoke of “a protracted history, including the welcome of fifty Kindertransport children on the eve of the Holocaust”.
She referred to Coventry Cathedral’s “worldwide ministry of peace and reconciliation, founded the very day after the destruction of the old cathedral in World War II. These relationships proceed and are deeply precious to us.
“Just last month, we stood side by side with the President of the Federal Republic of Germany . . . gathering to mark our mutual challenges in peacebuilding and social cohesion to encourage a latest generation to work together for peace in each of our countries.”
Bishop Jelley continued: “Our times are more divided, not less, in lately. We know that the study of human behaviour which led to the evil of the Holocaust begins by utilizing words — words that separate us through the language of othering, words intent on harming somewhat than healing. . . Our words matter, and we are able to use words towards hostility or towards peace.”
In her introduction to the controversy, the Minister, Baroness Taylor, read out the names of Holocaust survivors who had died through the past yr, and raised the theme of education.
“Teaching concerning the Holocaust will not be simply about understanding the past; it’s about shaping a future where hatred cannot take root so easily. That is why I feel that having the national Holocaust memorial [News, 21 February 2025] and learning centre at the guts of our capital, beside Parliament, matters so deeply.”
The co-chairman of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation, the previous Conservative Cabinet minister Lord Pickles, spoke of the demand “to withstand hatred in all its modern forms”.
“In 2025, Britain received a series of wake-up calls that showed how fragile our complacency had develop into: a violent attack on Jews in Manchester; the conviction of terrorists who planned the mass murder of Jewish people; the shocking murders at Bondi Beach. . . Britain, like much of the world, is sleepwalking into disaster.”
He expressed concern that “institutional responses remain inconsistent. . . The long-term defence is education; yet that is where latest challenges have emerged. The number of colleges marking Holocaust Memorial Day has fallen sharply, from 2000 in 2023 to 1200 in 2024, and only 850 in 2025. . .
“Some refuse to mark Holocaust Memorial Day unless it’s reframed. This will not be only a moment to reflect; it’s a warning, and there may be an obligation to cope with it.”
Baroness Deech (cross-bench) spoke of “the greater than 1200 victims of the atrocities of seven October and the greater than 200 individuals who were taken hostage — the worst massacre of Jews because the Second World War”.
She said: “Many students learn concerning the Holocaust without learning about anti-Semitism itself. They don’t understand its history, its ideological roots, or the social and non secular narratives that sustain it.”
She said: “Winchester diocese’s work with Jewish communities to eliminate medieval stereotypes from religious education are welcome, and it might be encouraging to see similar programmes expanded nationwide.”
Responding to the discussion, Baroness Taylor praised Bishop Jelley’s speech and the best way by which “Coventry is linking its devastation within the Second World War and the hatred that led to that with the importance of talking to our young people about peacebuilding and reconciliation.
“Listening to the controversy today, I feel that we’re all determined to try this to be certain that this will not be nearly memories, but about creating hope for the long run that this may never occur again.”
Atrocities debated. Last week, the Bishop of Manchester, Dr David Walker, spoke within the Atrocity Crimes debate, referring to matters that had been drawn to his attention as chair of the mission agency USPG. He spoke of “places not only where atrocities are often committed against religious and ethnic minorities — sometimes Christians, but not exclusively — but where the safety or the political situation is edging towards a greater risk of atrocity crimes and crimes against humanity in the long run”.
Referring also to atrocities committed within the UK, and countries equivalent to India where the potential for them was increasing due to an absence of presidency effort to limit violence, he was concerned about not allowing UK industrial interests to trump — “and the pun is meant” — matters of morality: “That was the principle that justified the worst excesses of our own colonial history in centuries past.”
Lord Rook (Labour) said that it was “now almost seven years because the FCDO [Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office] published the Bishop of Truro review . . . [which] assessed each the size of persecution faced by Christians globally and the adequacy of our foreign policy response”.
He praised progress on the 22 recommendations and asked for “early interventions in relation to FoRB violations . . . particularly where religious persecution significantly heightens the chance of future atrocities”.
Responding, Baroness Chapman said that the Government would “proceed to do the work that is required”.
