Artist’s impression of an aerial view of the proposed Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in London (UK Holocaust Memorial/PA)
(Picture: PA Media)The High Court’s decision to quash planning permission for a Holocaust memorial in Westminster has been branded “disappointing” by campaigners.
A leading campaigner against antisemitism has said: “Britain needs a monument to show us where hatred can lead.”
Chief executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust Olivia Marks-Woldman said a memorial was needed to combat “continuing antisemitism and distortion” of the genocide.
The Government had planned to build the memorial in the new UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre being built in Victoria Tower Gardens, a small triangular Grade II-listed park next to Westminster Abbey and the Palace of Westminster.
It had been due to open in 2024 and sought to be a focal point for national remembrance of the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered in the Holocaust.
But the London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust (LHPGT) had brought a legal challenge seeking to block the planning permission, arguing the memorial was “the right idea” in “the wrong place”.
The charity had said the plans did not comply with a 1900 legal act which prohibits using Victoria Tower Gardens “as anything other than a garden”.
They made claims the monument risked affecting the park “irrevocably” and impacting local trees and heritage monuments.
But Ms Marks-Woldsman told the Standard the decision was “disappointing” and leaves London lacking a significant memorial to the genocide nearly 80 years after the end of the Second World War.
“Britain really needs a permanent, physical memorial to the Holocaust,” she said. “We know there is continuing antisemitism and distortion of Holocaust history... We need a memorial to show us where that hatred can lead if it is normalised.
“I know there is a desire to protect London’s green spaces, but from what I understand of the design the park would have been enhanced. We would have gained a lasting memorial that would be here in another 75 years time.”
She noted Holocaust survivors in Britain are “close to the end of their lives” and soon there may be “no more living witnesses” to the genocide.
“A memorial would be an opportunity for people to gather, reflect, commemorate and learn,” she added. “It’s such a missed opportunity”.
Ms Marks-Woldman said the centrality of the memorial centre - in the hub of the British political world - was key and would have attracted visitors from across the globe.
“To have the memorial just outside parliament would have been a warning to MPs about the influence they have both for good and for ill,” she said.
“It would have been accessible for ordinary people and in the shadow of parliamentarians.”
At a hearing in February, the LHPGT focused its arguments on the evaluation of alternative sites and the impact the development may have on the heritage setting including the Buxton Memorial which celebrates the abolition of slavery.
Tory MP housing and communities secretary Robert Jenrick said the judgment was “surprising” and he was “confident” the Government would succeed in the Court of Appeal.
“I’ve always believed the national interest overwhelmingly supports establishing a National Holocaust Memorial & Learning Centre to educate and inform future generations and to tackle the cancer of antisemitism,” he said.
Ms Marks-Woldman, who sat on the original education advisory group during the conception of the plans, said she was hopeful an appeal would be successful so that the country could both remember the Holocaust.
She hoped it would serve to pay respects to victims of genocide, war crimes and atrocities around the world.
“When we look at what’s happening to Uyghur Muslims in China, Rohingya Muslims in Burma or the atrocities being carried out in Ukraine, there is an ongoing need to look at the past and learn from it,” she said.
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said the ruling was “very disappointing”.
She added: “Holocaust survivors are elderly, and their time is dwindling - time is of the essence.”
