Extract from Lords debate on Kindertransport Commemoration - Nov 26
Tuesday, 27 November 2018 07:34
Lord Shinkwin (Con):...I hope that my noble friend the Minister
will agree that there could be no more fitting commemoration of
both the Kindertransport and those who did not escape to safety
than a renewed commitment, by all parties, to combat the racism
that is anti-Semitism.... Lord Alton of Liverpool (CB):...While we
are right to praise the singular individuals—heroes like
Bonhoeffer, Kolbe, Schindler, Frank Foley and Raoul Wallenberg—who
all refused to...Request free trial
(Con):...I hope
that my noble friend the Minister will agree that there could be no
more fitting commemoration of both the Kindertransport and those
who did not escape to safety than a renewed commitment, by all
parties, to combat the racism that is anti-Semitism....
(CB):...While we are right to praise the singular
individuals—heroes like Bonhoeffer, Kolbe, Schindler, Frank Foley
and Raoul Wallenberg—who all refused to
accommodate anti-semitism and hatred of other
minorities, we must not become too self-congratulatory or slip into
a sentimental nostalgia. Overwhelmingly, people actively
collaborated or remained silent. Kindertransport saved the lives of
an estimated 10,000 children, each and every one of them precious.
But never forget that the Nazis and their collaborators killed as
many as 1.5 million children—including over a million Jewish
children—who are commemorated at the Children’s Memorial at Yad
Vashem, referred to by the noble Lord, , which I too
have visited. They also murdered tens of thousands of Romany
children, German children with physical and mental disabilities—a
point alluded to by the noble Lord, Shinkwin—and children from
Poland and occupied Soviet territory. Six million Jews were
murdered in the Holocaust, and most Kindertransport children would
never see their parents again....
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