A HOLOCAUST survivor has been praised for her “courage” after confronting Suella Braverman on using the “language of hate” in speaking about refugees.
Joan Salter, whose family fled the Nazis after her birth in 1940, challenged the Home Secretary over her previous use of “dehumanising” language in reference to refugees and asylum seekers.
The Home Office took the unusual step of issuing a public statement about the incident on social media, confirming it had asked the human rights charity which originally shared it to remove the video.
Salter responded to a tweet from Freedom from Torture, who said they were “standing our ground” by keeping the video online, saying: “On Friday I confronted Suella Braverman's use of hateful language. She refused to apologise.
“We must always challenge the language of hate. The Home Office demanded the video be taken down. They seem not to realise we are still a democracy.”
She was praised by others on social media who applauded her for taking on the Home Secretary.
Scottish opera singer Cheryl Forbes was among those to praise Salter, tweeting: “Joan, you showed such courage. Many people were moved by your words, me included.
“Sadly, there are Suella Bravermans everywhere but if the kind and good people shout loud enough, we will overcome.”
On Friday I confronted Suella Braverman's use of hateful language. She refused to apologise. We must always challenge the language of hate. The Home Office demanded the video be taken town. They seem not to realise we are still a democracy. https://t.co/KbEKdpGF5L
— Joan Salter (@T21Joan) January 15, 2023
Meanwhile, journalist and author Otto English said Salter’s intervention should give the Home Secretary "pause”.
He said: “If a Holocaust survivor is upbraiding the Home Secretary for her offensive and incendiary use of language against migrants then maybe just maybe the Home Secretary should pause to think.
“Getting the official Home Office account to go on the attack is not the appropriate response.”
Comedian Susie McCabe said: “This is nonsense, a survivor of the Holocaust calls out Suella Braverman on her divisive and hurtful language she has used regularly and the Home Office want it taken down.
“We are not North Korea, we are supposedly a democracy and if that’s the case the video should stay.”
Braverman was heavily criticised during the Tory party conference last year after she said it was her “dream” to have a plane filled with asylum seekers fly out to Rwanda for deportation under the UK’s deal with the African nation.
Less than a week into her tenure as Home Secretary under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Braverman referred to her job as being “about stopping the invasion on our southern coast”.
Salter’s life is chronicled on the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust’s official website, which notes she was born to Polish Jews in Belgium, just months before Nazi Germany invaded.
The family managed to escape and she was put on a boat for America which departed from Lisbon, Portugal in 1943 – it was not until 1947 she was reunited with her parents in London.
