‘The idea of having a memorial to this catastrophe next to the mother of parliaments,” says Dr Martin Stern, “is brilliant.” He speaks of the Holocaust memorial proposed for Victoria Tower Gardens, next to the Palace of Westminster. He does not, though, feel the same way about a learning centre that is proposed to go with the memorial. He feels that this would be a “calamitous mistake”, both “ridiculously large” for the small park in which it would be located and “ridiculously small” for its intended purpose.
Stern’s views should carry some weight. He is a survivor of the Theresienstadt concentration camp, where he was sent at the age of five. In 2018, he was awarded an MBE for his services to Holocaust education. He was an early backer of the memorial idea and was “induced to record a video” in its support before he saw the full extent of the plans. He tells me that “it distresses me greatly to upset people that I respect and like” who support the project. But he feels it is too important an issue to remain silent.
