Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:25 pm on 24 January 2023.
I agree with the words of Lord Mann that tackling antisemitism goes beyond education about the Holocaust. However, it would be a mistake for us to think that there is not still an enormous job of work to be done to describe exactly what happened during the Holocaust and the things that were then subsequently suppressed. There was a deliberate policy after the second world war of drawing a veil over the Nazi terror in western Germany. My uncle was a colonel in the army of occupation, who told me, in some detail, about all the Nazis who were not put on trial but who were invited instead to resume their roles as administrators, as judges, and as police in the new post-war administration. Friends of mine who were of German-Jewish heritage, who've investigated the past, have huge amounts of stories to tell about those of them who managed to flee Germany. But we have to remember all the ones who failed to get here—all the Kindertransport that were denied entry into this country—rather than just the ones that we are proud to say we have accepted. We really have so much work to do to look at our own role. What did we know about the concentration camps and what could we have done to bomb the railroads that were taking people to their murderous end? So, Minister, I wondered what conversations you might have had with the education Minister on how we can ensure that the Holocaust is never forgotten and that we reflect on a new approach, a new eye on the things that we really do need to remember, because if we forget, we will simply repeat history.