Tensions over the long-promised building of a Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre near to the Houses of Parliament were aired during a impassioned debate in the Lords.
A succession of Conservative peers have raised concerns about the spiralling cost of the project, now claimed to be at £138.8 million with a 15 percent contingency, for the building of a memorial and educational centre in Victoria Tower Gardens.
Introducing himself to peers as a strong supporter of the Conservative Friends of Israel group, and of the “current fight against the new attempts to destroy the Jewish homeland from the river to the sea” Lord Blencathra said he did not want his opposition to the memorial to be “misconstrued.”
But he said:”I cannot blame the present Government for pushing on with this out-of-control shambles.
“The Government whom I supported were more guilty, because they were told two years ago that the project was unachievable.
“Did the department do anything to sort out the project definition, the schedule or the budget, which the authority said was not manageable nor resolvable?
“No, of course not, because it was a big sacred cow—or, to mix metaphors, no one dared to suggest that this emperor had no clothes.
“Just as Jewish organisations were told, ‘You’d better back this proposal or there’ll be no Holocaust memorial’, so no one dared to admit that this project in Victoria Tower Gardens was out of control, for fear of being accused of not supporting Holocaust commemoration.
“I say that pushing on with a failed project with no proper cost control is treating Parliament with contempt. We need to know the best estimates for the operating costs and exactly who will be in charge.”
Several critics of the project noted that when first proposed under former Prime Minister David Cameron’s leadership, the memorial was originally costed at £100million, which the government proposed to finance with £25million in philanthropic funding.
Lord Robathan, another Conservative peer said:” It is the wrong place to put a large building such as this. It will, furthermore, cost a great deal more than £138.8 million, as I think we all know, even including a 15% contingency..”
Speaking in support of the memorial, Lord Finkelstein began by saying:”I was a member of David Cameron’s Holocaust Commission and that I take a long-standing interest in this as the son of a Holocaust survivor.
“Of course, not all Holocaust survivors agree about this memorial, but my mother certainly did, as did Ben Helfgott, who sat on the commission with me. Indeed, he regarded the issue of the location as central.”
The Tory peer and respected author and commentator then took issue with complaints about the cost of the project.
“Every single point that I have heard was also made against the erection of Nelson’s column,” said Finkelstein. “They did not have the money.
“The public subscriptions had fallen short of how much it would cost.
“The cost ballooned. It was too high. It had to be made shorter.
“People were not sure about the design and lots of people were not sure about Nelson either. They were furious that the Tsar had contributed.
“The economic strain was regarded as too great. These are points that are made about the construction of anything when it is first proposed and are later found to be entirely irrelevant to the impact that it will have.
“This Holocaust memorial is a memorial to everything we fought the war for and that the young people who liberated Belsen liberated Belsen for.
“It is a reminder of why we have a Parliament and why we have a parliamentary democracy and therefore it is relevant that it be right next door to Parliament.”
Daniel Finkelstein
But responding, Lord Carlile took issue with Finkelstein’s comparison with Nelson’s Column.
“I was rather shocked by what I hope he will forgive me for describing as his grandiose lecture creating an analogy with Nelson’s column,” he said.
“First, I remind him—I regret having to remind him, because he has an extraordinary family history, of which we are all aware, and we are hugely grateful for the contribution that his family have made to the remembrance of what happened to my and many other people’s families and ancestors—that Nelson’s column was a memorial to a man who had lived and not to 6 million people who had died. It is a very different proposition.”
Carlile continued to outline his opposition to the project adding “let us remember that Nelson’s column is about 500 yards from the Houses of Parliament and not situated in the garden next door.
“It was not thought necessary to place Nelson’s column by the Houses of Parliament. Rather, it was decided—and there is a clear analogy available here—to place Nelson’s column in a square called Trafalgar Square, which was so called to remember the contribution that Nelson had made to the history of this country.”
He praised the contribution to the debate from Lord Pickles, who had led the effort to finally see the memorial and learning centre built, but took issue with his claim that the location in Victoria Tower Gardens is extremely important for symbolic reasons.
“Yad Vashem, the most celebrated Holocaust memorial in the world and the most moving, is situated on a mountain which was completely devoid of any historical associations,” reasoned Carlile. ” It was deliberately put there and after it was built, it was called the mountain of remembrance, or whatever the correct translation is.”
Pickles took issue with some reports on the current progress of the project that he said had been based around “second-guessing” in terms of planning permission for the learning centre.
He added:” In terms of the size, it is the size of the Berlin Holocaust underground site.
“It is the size of the one in Jasenovac. It is the size of the large temporary exhibition in America. It is not particularly small art; it is adequate for its size.
“It will not have any exhibits. It will all be digital. That does seem reasonable. On the location, more than 50 different sites were looked at.
He also gave further detail on what to expect from the learning centre.
“In terms of its size, it is by no means unusual among Holocaust museums,”said Pickles.
“I talked about the Berlin museum, which is subterranean and roughly that size. Jasenovac is roughly that size. If we talk about museums in Warsaw, a short walk from the POLIN museum is a museum dedicated to the uprising, which is roughly the same size.
“As for new things, we have discovered, hidden for 80 years, some tapes by Patrick Gordon Walker, who many here will remember. He went in the week after Dimbleby did his famous interviews and interviewed inmates of the camp as well as perpetrators. We also have the first recording of the singing of Hatikvah after liberation.
“As the Government took the decision to release all the documents relating to the Holocaust, we have lots of new material that has simply not been seen. It will certainly address what we knew and when we knew it.
“In terms of getting an idea of what it would look like, if Members have visited Hut 27 at Auschwitz, which is an audio-visual experience of the book burning and the effect that it had on Jewish life and young people, they will know that that gives you an idea. ”
Baroness Ruth Deech
Another Tory peer, Lord King of Bridgewater added:”How many have died in the last nine years while we have been trying to put this project forward?
“It is embarrassing for both Governments. My Government put it forward; the Labour Government felt the duty to pick it up again. It is not right to offer a bet on this, but it is almost impossible to see this project going ahead as it is at the moment.”
Lord King added:”I rise to express my great concern, because I am a strong supporter of a memorial and a learning centre.
“But I am also pretty clear that if the plans continue on their present course—as it is now nine years since this started on its way—then God knows how many more years may be involved, with all the controversy and concerns about the proposals for the learning centre.
“The original proposal was for it just to be a memorial and then, as we know, a learning centre was added to it. Since then, other opportunities have come up of various Jewish institutions and facilities that might be suitable. Meanwhile, the learning centre itself has shrunk, because of the obvious problems of cost involved.”
Baroness Deech, one of the most outspoken opponents of the project from the community, also claimed:”Lord Finkelstein, mentioned Ben Helfgott.
“It is the case that most of the remaining Holocaust survivors do not know what is being done in their name or the details of it.
“In fact, people have gone to great lengths to stop them finding out. I was temporarily banned from talking to a group of survivors in north London in case they found out what was going on. However, one of the greatest survivors, Anita Lasker- Wallfisch, is opposed to this project.”
Deech continued:”Secondly, it is a matter of profound Jewish scholarship that the Holocaust is diluted by mixing it with other genocides, but there is no time to go into that now.
“Finally, even if the Jewish community had money, it supports its own people through a number of charities. If it was called on to come up with £200 million, there would be nothing left for anything else. It is a misconception that this is a community project or that the community should pay for it.”
Speaking for the government, Faith Minister Lord Khan later said:”The overall focus of the learning centre must of course remain clearly on the Holocaust, and it must be wholly integrated with the national memorial to the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
“We want to be sure that visitors are left in no doubt about the nature of the Holocaust.
“Having seen the memorial, they should clearly understand what it represents. For those reasons, it simply does not make sense to envisage a learning centre located elsewhere and carrying a much broader set of messages.”
Lord Levy, Jewish Care Life President,
Melanie Gotleib, Jewish Care Holocaust Survivors’ Centre coordinator and Lord Pickles, UK special envoy for post-Holocaust issues, together with Ivor Per
Several peers, including Labour’s Baroness Blackstone, suggested there should now be a “proper planning process”, adding “what is being proposed for this learning centre is inadequate.”
Responding to Baroness Deech, Lord Khan said he could not guarantee that a new full planning permission application will go back to Westminster City Council and through all the layers of planning that are normally required.
But Khan added:”I cannot give that guarantee.
“I want to be clear because noble Lords must understand this: that is in the hands of the designated Minister. It is the role of the designated Minister to see how he takes that forward.”
Comments from Lord Hamilton, widely condemned as antisemitic, had made further headlines after Tuesday’s debate. Jews have an ‘awful lot of money’ to pay for own Holocaust Memorial, says Tory peer
