5. Statement by the Deputy Minister and Chief Whip: Holocaust Memorial Day

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:07 pm on 28 January 2020.

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Photo of Jane Hutt Jane Hutt Labour 5:07, 28 January 2020

Well, thank you very much, Mark Isherwood, and thank you for all of the points, the questions, that you've made this afternoon. Again, we must repeat: the Holocaust must never be forgotten, and it cannot be just on Holocaust Memorial Day. It's important that this permeates our policy and the way in which I respond to your questions hopefully will demonstrate.

Never again to be repeated—that's part of education. That was a very, very strong message from survivor Dr Martin Stern yesterday, that this is about education. And we need to ensure that that is not just through some very excellent projects that we are funding through the Holocaust Educational Trust, but actually taking this further—and we follow on from a very important statement this afternoon by the education Minister—where we look at the curriculum, we look at the purposes. One of the four purposes in our new curriculum in Wales from 2022 is for all children and young people to develop as ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world, knowledgeable about their culture, communities and society, respecting the needs and rights of others as members of a diverse society. Of course, we see that in our schools, and we see the benefits of that, but this is a very strong tenet of the new curriculum.

It is important that we do fund that Holocaust Educational Trust and we encourage more schools to engage. It will be running in February, and we know that young people—and I'm sure that you saw this in the Wrexham event—want to engage, and they become powerful ambassadors and it will change their lives. And we've heard of other programmes that we will look at, I'm sure, later on. But I think that it is about how we then ensure that this is across the curriculum and in all our schools. I think you raise a very important point about Gypsy/Roma/Travellers and I would like to respond to the message you had from your friends in Conwy, from the Gypsies and Travellers, in terms of their experience. Of course, we heard from Issac Blake at the event in the Senedd recently, and if I can then put again on record today that we must remember that the Nazi genocide included a large number of Gypsy and Roma victims and their suffering mustn't be forgotten. It's very clearly part of today's statement and our response across this Chamber, I'm sure. Negative public discourse in relation to these members of our communities—John Griffiths mentioned this earlier on, and I'm glad that they can feed back to us as Assembly Members in terms of these adverse experiences or feelings that they haven't been acknowledged or heard. It's imperative that we do stand together—the message of Holocaust Memorial Day—against such racism and intolerance. 

But I think the fact that we are awarding considerable sums of finance—£529,500 to the Travelling Ahead project at TGP Cymru—is important because that's about delivering advice and advocacy support to Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities. That's about making a positive impact on people's lives through supporting community members, but also on the aspects of their lives that are very important in terms of accessing equality of opportunity, training, education and influencing decision making. So, that is a very important part of my response today.

But in terms of how we tackle antisemitism, we stand, the Welsh Government, with the Jewish community in Wales and across the world. We consider antisemitic attacks to be an attack on Welsh values of inclusion, freedom and respect. So, that's why working with faith communities is so important to promote those shared values and understanding in Wales. We will work to ensure that Wales continues to be a country where antisemitism and all forms of hate have no place.