Lord Dubs: It’s ‘absolutely shocking’ that 5 percent of Brits deny the Holocaust
The Prague-born former MP helped commemorate the signing of the UN Anne Frank declaration, while reflect on a recent report about Shoah education
Lord Alf Dubs has said he finds it “absolutely shocking” that five percent of Brits don’t believe the Holocaust happened, as revealed in a jaw-dropping recent report.
Czech-born Jewish peer who escaped the Nazis on the Kindertransport, was among the guests gathered at Portcullis House yesterday to remember Anne Frank.
The Prague-born former MP delivered an address commemorating the 20th anniversary of the signing of the UN Anne Frank declaration.
“One of the things that shocked me most is that I read in the newspapers that 5 percent of people interviewed did not know about the Holocaust”, Lord Dubs told attendees.
He continued: “I find that absolutely shocking, given what’s been happening and the publicity and so on. I wonder who they were.
“I hope they were not young people, who after all get this taught to them in schools.
“If we don’t know about the Holocaust, we are much more liable to not know when we’ve got to stand up to injustice.”
This comes after a jaw-dropping report revealed that one in 20 adults in the UK do not believe the Holocaust happened, while one in 16 feel it has been exaggerated.
In a poll commissioned by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT), more than 2,000 Brits were asked about the Shoah – and their level of knowledge shocked educators.
A longtime advocate for refugees, Dubs also called on the Government to accept 10,000 vulnerable children over the next decade, adding: “I am not saying we should take them all but I think taking vulnerable children to a place of safety is something that we owe humanity.”
Also attending were Tory MP Helen Grant MP, who hosted the event, Gillian Walnes Perry, co-founder of the Anne Frank Trust and Stephen Lawrence’s best friend Duwayne Brooks, who read the declaration aloud.
The event kicked off with a minute of silence, followed by an address from Nic Careem, founder of The Blue Sky Network, and readings from the Diary of Anne Frank and Gillian Walnes’ new book ‘The Legacy of Anne Frank’.
Speaking at the event, Mr Careem said: “Anne Frank was just an ordinary little girl. She was not any more special than any other little girl, but she wrote this diary.”
The UN Anne Frank declaration, written by the Anne Frank Trust UK to remember all children who died in wars and conflicts in the 20th century, seeks to serve as a reminder of what can happen when prejudice is not challenged.
Notable signatories of the declaration include Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan, Bill Clinton, Angelina Jolie and many others.
For Holocaust Memorial day, Lord Dubs featured in a Holocaust Memorial Day message by the Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn.
In his message, Labour peer Lord Dubs, who escaped on a Kindertransport from Prague in the summer of 1939, recalled when he first became aware of the danger: “The first signs that the Nazis came in, was at school. We had to tear a picture of the Czech President out of our school books and stick in the picture of Hitler.
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