Holocaust survivors criticise plans for new Westminster memorial

A 98-year-old Holocaust survivor has told MPs that plans for a new memorial and learning centre next to Parliament are "completely idiotic".

Anita Lasker-Wallfisch told a Commons committee that the chosen location was "dangerous" and "impossible".

Ministers first promised a memorial in 2015, but the proposal proved contentious and has run into legal difficulties.

The government said it remained "firmly committed" to the plan.

The idea first originated in 2014, when then-Prime Minister David Cameron set up a commission to consider what was needed to preserve the memory of the Holocaust in which around six million Jews were murdered, as well as Roma, disabled people and other groups including gay people, minority races, political opponents like communists and trade unionists, and Jehovah's Witnesses.

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The commission proposed building a "striking and prominent" memorial in central London alongside a "world-class learning centre".

In 2016, the government selected Victoria Tower Gardens - a small park to the south of Parliament - as the best location.

That decision has proved to be controversial, and on Wednesday Holocaust survivors told MPs of their concerns.

One of the first witnesses was Ms Lasker-Wallfisch, who was sent to Auschwitz at the age of 18, but was able to survive because she played the cello.

She hit the table in frustration as she told the MPs the idea of a learning centre was almost an insult: "What are we learning now that we haven't learned in 80 years? We shouldn't kill each other? Good idea".

She also feared the memorial would overshadow the nearby Buxton slavery memorial.

Martin Stern - who was arrested by the Nazis aged five - said the proposed site for the learning centre was "far too big for the little park and far too small for the purpose.".

Crossbench peer Baroness Deech, who had family members killed in the Holocaust, objected to the memorial being built so close to a children's playground and a cafe.

"How can one have a cafe - selling coke and crisps - by a memorial of people who starved to death. I can not think of anything more tin-eared."

A computer-generated image of the previous plan for a Holocaust memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens

Mr Stern also suggested the site "intended to counteract antisemitism will in fact increase it.

"People will say 'look at the Jews - they push themselves to the front'."

His concerns were echoed by another survivor - Joanna Millan - who worried about the amount of money being spent on the project.

She feared people would ask: "Why is all this money being spent on Jews - what about our hospitals?"

Several of the witnesses proposed the Imperial War Museum, less than a mile from Parliament, as an alternative site big enough to accommodate a learning centre.

There were also objections to the proposed design, with Ms Millan likening it to a "toast rack".

Baroness Deech said "23 sticks sticking up in the air" had "nothing to do with the Holocaust".

She also said the design was "generic" and looked similar to other memorials built in Barbados and Ottawa.

The design includes 23 bronze fins creating 22 "gaps", representing the 22 countries in which Jewish communities were destroyed.

The plan has received backing from Chief Rabbi Mirvis. He said he understood why the design might not appeal to some, but said others felt it would be "striking and powerful".

Writing in the Jewish Chronicle, he said situating the memorial "in the shadow of the seat of our country's democracy" would be "an eternal reminder to our political leaders that the fight against hatred is a fundamental part of the responsibility we have conferred upon them".

Earlier this year, Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove said the government was "absolutely determined to complete the Holocaust Memorial at the very heart of our national life to preserve the memory of what happened".

The Buxton Memorial Fountain commemorates the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1834

Planning permission for the memorial was granted in 2021, but the decision was successfully challenged in the High Court on the grounds that a 1900 law contained a prohibition on using Victoria Tower Gardens as "anything other than a garden open to the public".

The garden was created in 1880, partly funded by the W.H. Smith family on the understanding that it would be "open to the public... and available as a recreation ground".

Last year, the government introduced the Holocaust Memorial Bill, which would remove the obstacle of the 1900 legislation.

If the bill is passed, planning consent would still be required.

During the committee hearing, witnesses were asked if it was important to get the memorial built before the last remaining survivors of the Holocaust died.

Ms Millan urged the MPs not to make this a consideration.

"Don't hurry it through because I might be dead tomorrow. It has got to be right. I want to see a memorial that is right, in the right place, for the right price."

A spokesperson for the levelling up department, which is responsible for the bill, said it remained "firmly committed" to locating the new memorial and learning centre in Victoria Tower Gardens.

They added MPs had "overwhelmingly supported" the bill during its initial vote in the Commons.

"We will continue to consider all views shared," they added.