{"id":88063,"date":"2018-01-16T20:05:12","date_gmt":"2018-01-16T20:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=339da91d8115da6ddab8e8c413007a28"},"modified":"2018-01-16T20:05:12","modified_gmt":"2018-01-16T20:05:12","slug":"speech-holocaust-educational-trust-holocaust-memorial-day-reception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=88063","title":{"rendered":"Speech: Holocaust Educational Trust \u2013 Holocaust Memorial Day Reception"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Last October at the Holocaust Educational Trust Appeal Dinner, I sat next to a man named Harry Spiro.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Harry couldn\u2019t be here today but he was just 8 years old in 1939 when war broke out in Poland.<\/p>\n

By 1945, aged just 14, he was the only member of his family to still be alive.<\/p>\n

That evening, Harry told me his story.<\/p>\n

In 1942, Harry was working in a factory in his home town of Piotrkow, when the call came from the Nazis for the workers to gather outside the nearby synagogue.<\/p>\n

Harry didn\u2019t want to go, but his mother \u2013 anticipating that things were about to get much worse \u2013 insisted.<\/p>\n

As she pushed him out, she said: \u201cHopefully one of us will survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tragically, she \u2013 and the rest of Harry\u2019s family \u2013 were murdered at Treblinka.<\/p>\n

But her words \u2013 and their message of hope and endurance through the darkest times \u2013 live on.<\/p>\n

They live on through Harry, who survived a death march that killed 2,300 of the 3,000 who set off.<\/p>\n

Her words live on through Harry\u2019s children and grandchildren.<\/p>\n

And through Harry\u2019s exceptional work on Holocaust education, work for which he has just been awarded a British Empire Medal in the Queen\u2019s New Year\u2019s Honours list.<\/p>\n

An honour he shares with Freda, another extraordinary survivor, who has just spoken so movingly.<\/p>\n

My warmest congratulations to them both.<\/p>\n

And now stories like Freda\u2019s and Harry\u2019s are inspiring a whole new generation through the work of fantastic young HET<\/abbr> ambassadors, like Georgia (Adkins).<\/p>\n

Thank you for everything you\u2019re doing to keep these stories, these words, alive.<\/p>\n

They matter immensely.<\/p>\n

We know, particularly from the world of instant of communication on social media how words can entertain us, educate us, unite us, and uplift us.<\/p>\n

But, also, how they can wound and divide.<\/p>\n

How they can inflame prejudice in echo chambers where ignorance goes unchallenged.<\/p>\n

How they can drive people towards hatred and even violence.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s fitting that this year\u2019s Holocaust Memorial Day asks us to consider the power of words.<\/p>\n

The Holocaust Educational Trust<\/a> has never shied away from teaching young people where hatred, intolerance and misinformation can lead.<\/p>\n

The way we use words and language is key to this.<\/p>\n

Which is why the government has been proud to support HET<\/abbr>\u2019s vital work through initiatives such as the Lessons from Auschwitz programme<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This programme has enabled thousands of children and their teachers to understand a little of what it meant to live through.<\/p>\n

What Harry Spiro described to me, as \u201chell on earth\u201d.<\/p>\n

In 2011, I was privileged to accompany a group from my constituency to Auschwitz-Birkenau.<\/p>\n

It was one of the most moving experiences of my life.<\/p>\n

The hateful inscription on the gate might be familiar, but there are no words to convey the feeling when you walk inside.<\/p>\n

Of imagining all the men, women and children who perished there and whose cries were silenced forever.<\/p>\n

Cries \u2013 against hatred, intolerance and misinformation – that we must ensure are heard.<\/p>\n

We all have a duty to speak out in their memory.<\/p>\n

Of course, Holocaust education is not the only answer.<\/p>\n

But it remains one of the most powerful tools we have to fight bigotry today.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I am delighted to announce today that my Ministry \u2013 together with the Department for Education \u2013 will fund a new strand of the Lessons from Auschwitz programme.<\/p>\n

A new initiative, proposed by HET<\/abbr> and the Union of Jewish Students, to tackle antisemitism, prejudice and intolerance on university campuses.<\/p>\n

I know this is something that the Trust has been keen to get off the ground.<\/p>\n

And Karen – as anyone who knows her well will agree – is someone you do not turn down or disagree with!<\/p>\n

So I hope this will be welcome news.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019d like to take this opportunity to thank Karen and everyone at the Trust for their tireless dedication to Holocaust education.<\/p>\n

The programme will invite 2 Sabbatical Officers from each university to visit the death camps.<\/p>\n

Vice-Chancellors will also be encouraged to take part.<\/p>\n

I look forward to seeing how this work proceeds and the difference it makes.<\/p>\n

HET<\/abbr>\u2019s work is invaluable and I\u2019m honoured to be associated with it.<\/p>\n

Not just because it\u2019s the right thing to do, but because I have seen it works.<\/p>\n

I remember Harry telling me about a visit to a school in London\u2019s East End.<\/p>\n

When a pupil refused to attend his Holocaust presentation because he didn\u2019t want to, in the words of that pupil, \u201chear from Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harry refused to deliver his talk unless the young man was present.<\/p>\n

And so he was persuaded, reluctantly, to attend Harry\u2019s talk.<\/p>\n

That same young man later wrote to him and said it was one of the most moving experiences of his life.<\/p>\n

So much so, he was inspired to become a passionate champion of greater tolerance and understanding among his peers.<\/p>\n

So our efforts to tell stories like Harry\u2019s, to challenge antisemitism wherever it exists, are absolutely crucial.<\/p>\n

Not just now, but for future generations.<\/p>\n

This is the thinking behind our commitment to build a new national Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre.<\/p>\n

Its presence, right next to the Houses of Parliament, will ensure that the testimony of survivors will never be forgotten in Britain.<\/p>\n

That the message of hope and a better future\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026whispered from a mother to son all those years ago\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026serves as a beacon for centuries to come.<\/p>\n

Thank you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sajid Javid’s speech to the Holocaust Educational Trust.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88063"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88063\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}