Keir Starmer has admitted nothing could prepare him for the “sheer horror” of what he saw inside Auschwitz-Birkenau, after visiting the Nazi concentration camp last Friday with wife Victoria.
The Prime Minister said he felt “a sickness, an air of desperation” as he stood on the infamous train tracks at the Birkenau memorial site and attempted to comprehend the slaughter of one million people “simply because they were Jewish.”
He said the visit had made him recognise “more clearly than ever before” that the horrors of the Holocaust were not just the responsibility of “a few bad individuals” but were actually the result of “a collective endeavour by thousands of ordinary people.”
In a visit, that coincided with a meeting with the Polish Prime Minister in Warsaw, and took place ahead of commemorations for Holocaust Memorial Day, 80 years after the Shoah, Starmer also noted that “despicably” in the aftermath of the October 7th Hamas terror attack with rising antisemitism, the community had been “targeted once again for the same reason, because they are Jewish.”
The PM pledged:”The truth that I have seen here today will stay with me for the rest of my life.
“So too, will my determination to defend that truth, to fight the poison of antisemitism and hatred in all its forms, and to do everything I can to make ‘never again’ mean what it says, and what it must truly mean: never again.”
The Prime Minister said he felt “a sickness, an air of desperation” as he stood on the infamous train tracks
After touring the most infamous German concentration camp the PM added: “Nothing could prepare me for the sheer horror of what I have seen in this place. It is utterly harrowing. The mounds of hair, the shoes, the suitcases, the names and details, everything that was so meticulously kept, except for human life.
“As I stood by the train tracks at Birkenau, looking across that cold, vast expanse, I felt a sickness, an air of desolation, as I tried to comprehend the enormity of this barbarous, planned, industrialised murder: a million people killed here for one reason, simply because they were Jewish.
“My visit today has also shown me more clearly than ever before, how this was not the evil deeds of a few bad individuals. It took a collective endeavour by thousands of ordinary people who each played their part in constructing this whole industry of death.
“To build the tracks, drive the trains, extract the hair and teeth, conceive the method of mass murder – each stomach-churning step rooted in the hatred of difference. The lessons of this darkest of crimes are the ultimate warning to humanity of where prejudice can lead.”
Turning his thoughts to the worrying rise of antisemitism at home, and elsewhere in the world, the PM said: “Time and again we condemn this hatred, and we boldly say “never again”.
Keir Starmer and his wife Lady Victoria, visit the Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau
“But where is never again, when we see the poison of antisemitism rising around the world in aftermath of 7 October?
“Where is never again, when the pulse of fear is beating in our own Jewish community, as people are despicably targeted once again for the very same reason, because they are Jewish.”
Starmer confirmed it was the second visit to the camps made by his wife Victoria, whose family are Jewish.
He added: “My wife was equally moved by what she saw today. It was her second visit, but no less harrowing than the first time she stepped through that gate and witnessed the depravity of what happened here.”
Karen Pollock CBE, Chief Executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust said “The Prime Minister has today seen for himself the most notorious site of the Holocaust, the former Nazi concentration and death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau. Nothing can prepare you for seeing the magnitude of this place that was built for the sole purpose of extermination, where approximately a million Jewish men, women and children were systematically murdered.”
Board of Deputies president Phil Rosenberg added:”In the coming weeks we will commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day – the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
“We thank the Prime Minister for his visit today, which shows the strength of his dedication to the UK’s long-term commitment to supporting Holocaust Memorial and Remembrance.”
