- Communities Secretary
Robert Jenrick reaffirms his support for the
Memorial’s construction beside Parliament ahead of the
Independent Planning Inspector’s Inquiry later this year
- Westminster council hold procedural meeting on the Memorial’s
planning application
Communities Secretary of State Robert Jenrick yesterday
(11 February 2020) reaffirmed his commitment that the UK
Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre will be built next to
Parliament.
The Memorial will be the focal point for national
remembrance of the Holocaust and learning and is
dedicated to the 6 million Jewish men, women and children
murdered in the Holocaust and all other victims of the Nazis and
their collaborators. The learning centre will also focus on
subsequent genocides.
Last night Westminster City Council held an
extraordinary meeting of its planning committee to hear the case
for and against the Memorial before the proposal is heard by the
Independent Planning Inspector later this year.
This procedural meeting will not decide the outcome of the Public
Inquiry nor diminish the government’s commitment to its
construction.
Communities Secretary Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP said:
2020 marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of
Auschwitz-Birkenau. As fewer survivors remain with us it is
more important than ever for us to come together to remember
the 6 million Jewish men, women and children murdered during
the Holocaust and all other victims of Nazi persecution.
The evil of the Holocaust must serve as a continual reminder to
us all of why we need to make a stand against antisemitism,
racism and hatred, whenever and wherever we find it.
The government remains implacably committed to the construction
of the Holocaust Memorial and Education Centre right at the
heart of our democracy, beside our national parliament to
ensure that future generations never forget. No one, whether in
national or local government should shirk their duty to deliver
on the promise of this memorial, and the government certainly
will not.
Attending today’s meeting at Westminster City Council to advocate
for the Memorial and Learning Centre were Karen Pollock MBE and
Holocaust Survivor Mala Tribich MBE. Ahead of the meeting last
night they said:
Mala Tribich MBE – Holocaust Survivor
For decades, I have shared my story with tens of thousands of
people across this country. But, the lessons of the Holocaust
are yet to be learnt. Prejudice and discrimination still live
on. A Memorial, now, at the heart of this country, next to
Parliament, where decisions are made, will help us to learn the
lessons that we have not done so far.
As the Holocaust moves further into history and we survivors
become less able to share our testimonies this Memorial and
Learning Centre will be a lasting legacy so that future
generations will understand why it is important for people to
remember the Holocaust, to learn from the past and stand up
against injustice.
Karen Pollock MBE – Chief Executive, Holocaust Educational Trust
The Holocaust happened in our continent, in living memory. It
is not a distant history. It is our history. We are the
children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the
survivors, of the soldiers who brought about the end of the war
and the liberation of the camps, of the nurses and doctors who
helped to rebuild the survivors’ lives after their liberation.
This is our story.
The reality is as the survivors become older, frailer and
fewer, we have to preserve their stories, and the stories of
the 6 million whose voices we will never hear, so that the next
generation know what happened on this continent. Now, more than
ever, we need this Memorial and Learning Centre.
Lord co-chair of the UK Holocaust
Memorial Foundation Advisory Board
While the announcement by Westminster City Council is no more
than an expression of opinion, they should be thanked for their
cooperation on technical aspects of the application, which will
help the Secretary of State (or nominee) make the actual
decision.
The key question is the national importance of the Memorial and
Learning Centre, which underlines the wisdom of calling-in the
application so that the government can properly consider its
national importance.
The nation needs this Memorial. It will stand next to
Parliament as a permanent reminder that legislators always have
a choice, either to protect or oppress human rights.
I’m encouraged by the government’s and the official
opposition’s full commitment to the Memorial, and its location.
The case for a national Holocaust Memorial next to Parliament
is a strong one. The choice of location is in many ways the
point.
Rt Hon co-chair of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation
Advisory Board
It is now clear from all the representations that have been
made over recent months, that there is deep and widespread
support, in Parliament across all the political parties and
more widely across the UK, for a national Holocaust Memorial in
Victoria Tower Gardens.
And while it is regrettable that Westminster City Council
does not seem able to support the project, I am very
confident that the compelling case for this national Memorial
will be recognised when the final planning decision is taken by
the Minister.
Seventy-five years on from the liberation of the Nazi death
camps of Europe, it is deeply distressing that there are still
people who try to diminish the gravity of what happened, or
even try to deny that this systematic attempt to destroy an
entire people actually took place at all.
But in the decades to come, when survivors of the Holocaust are
no longer with us to recount their experiences, the Memorial
will ensure that their suffering and the terrible
tragedy that they experienced, will never be forgotten.
In January 2016 the then Prime Minister announced that the chosen
location for the Memorial was Victoria Tower Gardens,
Westminster.
After an international competition, with 92 entries in total and
ten finalists, Adjaye Associates, Ron Arad Architects and
Gustafson Porter + Bowman were selected unanimously as the
winning team, by a jury including the then Secretary of State for
Communities and Local Government, the Mayor of London, the Chief
Rabbi, experts from architecture, art and design, and both first
and second-generation Holocaust survivors. The announcement was
made on 24 October 2017.
A planning application was submitted to Westminster City Council
in December 2018. In November 2019 the Housing Minister decided
to call in the planning application for determination at the
national level because of the project’s significant effects
beyond the immediate locality. There will now be a public inquiry
chaired by a planning inspector.
The government committed £50 million in 2015 and in 2019
announced an additional £25 million of government money to be
matched by charitable donations.
A time capsule will also be buried at the proposed site to remind
future generations that survivors fought long and hard for this
memorial
