Starmer pledges to make Holocaust education a ‘national effort’

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has reiterated his commitment to ensuring all schools teach pupils about the Holocaust, warning that society “must let ‘never again’ finally mean what it says” “.

The Labor leader said that as we remember the six million Jewish victims “we must also take action”, adding that he wanted to make teaching young people about the Holocaust a “national effort”.

His comments come ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

On Monday, the king will join survivors and other dignitaries at a service at the former concentration camp site.

Holocaust Memorial Day, observed every year on January 27, remembers the six million Jews killed during World War II.

It also commemorates the millions of people outside Judaism who were murdered as a result of Nazi persecution and who were targeted in recent genocides.

This year also marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration camp.

The camp was at the center of the Nazi campaign to exterminate the Jewish population of Europe.

“It happened, it can happen again: this is a doomsday warning to us all,” Sir Keir said.

He said, “The Holocaust was a collective effort of thousands of ordinary people who were completely consumed by hatred of difference.”

“This is the hatred we stand against today and it takes a collective effort by all of us to defeat it.”

Earlier this month, the prime minister visited Auschwitz, near the town of Oświęcim in southern Poland, where he vowed to fight the “poison of antisemitism.”

On Wednesday, he welcomed a group of survivors and their families to Downing Street, calling the meeting “an incredible privilege” and praising their “sheer and remarkable courage”.

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch spoke of the importance of confronting “the resurgence of anti-Semitism today” while reflecting on the Holocaust as “a unique evil in human history” in a statement to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

While Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey urged vigilance to safeguard “peace, human rights and compassion” and to guard against “anti-Semitism, hatred, discrimination and harassment”.

King Charles will become the first British monarch to visit Auschwitz and will also meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda during his brief visit to the country.

The Prince of Wales will attend official commemorations in London to mark the anniversary.