Britain doesn’t know how to remember the Holocaust

On 27 January next year, the world will commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. ‘The commemoration will be the last of its kind’, says Michael Bornstein who, having hidden for six months in his mother’s bunk, aged only four, was among the youngest survivors.  

What lies ahead regarding Holocaust memory – and anti-Semitism – when Michael Bornstein is no longer with us? Lily Ebert’s death last week week feels like an important moment: the most famous Holocaust survivor, at least to the TikTok generation, is also now gone. So far, Britain has met this historical moment in bizarre ways. The D-Day anniversary that Rishi Sunak left a few months ago was the last time such an event would occur with living veterans present.

A few weeks ago, Sir Keir Starmer set out his muddled vision for Holocaust memorialisation in a speech at the Holocaust Educational Trust. It was not mere politics for him, but something deeper.