UK Ambassador Neil Bush marks Holocaust Memorial Day at the OSCE
and reiterates UK commitment to combat antisemitism.
"Mr Chair,
I would like to express my thanks to you, Dr Meyer, for your
introductory comments, and your work as Secretary General of
International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).
Eighty years ago, on a cold day in January, top-ranking Nazis
gathered in a House by a lake on the outskirts of Berlin at
Wannsee to discuss the exploitation and mass murder of Jewish
people. Under the euphemism of the Final Solution, children would
die alongside their parents and grandparents. No one would be
spared.
Today, across the globe, there are malicious people who actively
deny the historic reality of the Holocaust and seek to minimise
the extent of the atrocities committed against the Jewish people
by the Nazis and their accomplices during the Second World War.
Distortion of the Holocaust comes from various sources and is not
unique to one particular world-wide view. It can be found on both
the right and left of the political spectrum, across religious
and ethnic lines, and is also informed, in part, by a broader
culture of denialism in present-day discourse.
Denying and distorting the Holocaust is a form of antisemitism;
we must not stand by when others revise history to erase the
horror of the mass murder of Jewish people.
Antisemitism is vile. The UK Government is clear that victims
should be supported, and that cowards who commit hateful
antisemitic attacks should feel the full force of the law.
We have a longstanding track-record of standing up for the rights
of members of all faiths and beliefs internationally, including
Jews. Through a Network of Liberty, the UK will continue to
combat this abhorrent ideology in all its repugnant forms.
We must promote fact-based knowledge about the history of the
Holocaust and strengthen media and information literacy.
We welcome that at last year’s Malmö Forum, countries worldwide
pledged to take concrete steps to further Holocaust remembrance
and combat antisemitism. That landmark conference came twenty
years after the Stockholm Forum on the Holocaust laid the
foundation for contemporary action on Holocaust education,
remembrance and research. The UK will chair the International
Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in 2024. In 2025, the UK will open
a new national Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre to stand as
a constant reminder of why we must be relentless in the fight
against Holocaust denial and antisemitism.
Mr Chair,
The UK was proud to recently cosponsor the historic UN resolution to
combat holocaust denial that was brought forward by Israel
and Germany. Together we must continue to stand against
antisemitism in all its forms and reject any attempts to deny the
facts of the holocaust.
We encourage participating States to adopt the Alliance’s working
definition of antisemitism.
Mr Chair,
Each year on Holocaust Memorial Day, we remember the six million
Jewish men, women and children murdered during the Holocaust. We
remember the thousands of Roma, Sinti, and other victims of Nazi
persecution, including LGBT+ and those with disabilities. We
remember the victims of other genocides.
It is also a day when we imagine a world free from genocide; a
world which has fully recognised where hatred and intolerance,
prejudice, and antisemitism can lead.
Thank you Mr Chair"
