THE planned location of a £138-million memorial and education centre “to assist make sure the victims of the Holocaust won’t ever be forgotten” was the topic of a five-hour debate on the Second Reading of the Holocaust Memorial Bill.
Lord Khan of Burnley, who was confirmed in August because the Government’s recent Faith Minister, restated in his introductory speech the intention to have “a recent national memorial to the Holocaust, with an integrated learning centre . . . a point of interest for remembering the six million Jewish men, women, and kids, and all other victims of Nazi persecution, including Roma, gay, and disabled people”.
He also paid tribute to Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton, who, when Prime Minister, had launched the Holocaust Commission, which had delivered the suggestion for a “striking and distinguished” recent memorial and academic resource in its 2015 report. That work had been taken up by the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation, which had found a site on the Grade II registered Victoria Tower Gardens, adjoining to the Houses of Parliament.
The Bishop of St Albans, Dr Alan Smith, said that having “visited a big variety of Holocaust memorials in other parts of the world and other capital cities, I’m well aware of their importance and the way moving they will be”, and that “the strategic importance of learning in regards to the Holocaust — especially now, given the continuing scourge of anti-Semitism”.
The Bishop of Southwark, the Rt Revd Christopher Chessun, took up the theme: “There is an urgent have to ring-fence and deploy funds in a vigorous online campaign against Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism. Both are all too prevalent and are given the means to proliferate via social media — one other growing threat — on the agency of very malign influences.”
He hoped that “a striking and distinguished Holocaust memorial and a properly funded and well-sited learning centre is perhaps championed equally, thus provisioning a resource against misinformation”, although each bishops, together with many members of the Lords, were unconvinced by the intended placement of the education centre in Victoria Gardens, and its planning application.
Concerns had been expressed that it could, many peers felt, deprive the area people of green space within the gardens and present recent challenges in relation to funding, security, public safety, and the risks of floods. There were also doubts that it could provide an adequate constructing for the project’s stated goals and desires.
Lord Cameron described the initiative as “thoroughly cross-party”, and referred to the “real power in bringing together the monument and the education, and having it at the center of our democracy. . . I believe that is the proper idea, in the proper place and at the proper time.”
Lord Griffiths of Burry Port, a former President of the Methodist Conference, said that he was “fully committed to delivering a national Holocaust memorial and learning centre”, but that “we should always not routinely think that the 2 must be next to or a part of one another.”
Lord Lisvane observed how “the entire proposal has been opposed from the start by Westminster City Council, Historic England, the Royal Parks, various amenity organisations, and UNESCO — remembering that Parliament Square and its associated buildings form a UNESCO world heritage site.”
Earlier in the talk, the Earl of Effingham quoted the Archbishop of Canterbury as having said how the project on this location “provides a symbolic opportunity to present the complete story to recent generations”.
Baroness Deech’s proposed amendment that “the planning application will start from scratch . . . back to Westminster and thru a correct inquiry, because a lot has modified in the previous few years”, was defeated. The Bill now returns to a Select Committee for further work.
