Holocaust memorial critics warn of creating ‘monument to death and the Nazis'
Concerns were again raised at Westminster as legislation paving the way for the delayed development took a further step forward.
The chosen site in Victoria Tower Gardens, located immediately adjacent to Parliament, has been contentious, with disquiet over the loss of green space in central London, the design of the scheme and security implications.
A main obstacle to supporters was a 1900 law protecting the small triangular Grade II-listed park, which led to the quashing of planning permission after a legal battle.
To overcome this, the Labour Government reintroduced the Holocaust Memorial Bill, proposed by the previous Tory administration.
It will both authorise expenditure on the construction, maintenance and operation of the memorial and learning centre, and also disapply sections of the 1900 Act, removing the legal obstacle that has prevented the project from going ahead.
The Bill received its third reading in the Lords on Tuesday and now goes to the Commons for MPs to consider a single change made by peers, making clear the sole purpose of the learning centre 'must be the provision of education about the Holocaust and antisemitism'.
Independent crossbencher Baroness Deech, who lost her grandparents in the Holocaust, has been a leading critic of the proposed scheme.
She said: 'Once we are free of the fears of this Government that any alternative is somehow giving in to the antisemitism of which the party was accused a few years ago – that is simply not the case – we will go forward with a planning process that might yet rescue this botched plan.
'It is not too late to tweak it and build not a monument to death and the Nazis but one dedicated to the need to preserve and understand Jewish life.
'At a time when a new version of the desire to destroy Jewish life in the Middle East and elsewhere is playing out as we speak, we could have a learning centre that extended to the achievement of the survivors of the Holocaust in building what was a safe haven for Jews, a land of their own.
'Is it not ironic that this Government are so respectful of six million dead but so cavalier about the fate of seven million of their descendants in Israel right now?'
She added: 'We who understand what is at stake will continue to press our case. The fight is not over.'
Liberal Democrat Baroness Walmsley said: 'I thank all those who pointed out the risks and drawbacks of the choice the Government have made about the location of the learning centre and express a hope that, on reflection, the Government may in time make a different choice.'
Tory former minister Lord Robathan said: 'As somebody who cares hugely about the Jewish Holocaust and the ghastly thing it is, the site for the learning centre is wrong.
'It will be cramped and is not worthy of what we wish to commemorate.
'I say to the minister and others that back this, I personally don't believe it will be built, because there are going to be so many problems once you start destroying Victoria Gardens to do this.'
Independent crossbencher Lord Inglewood, who is president of Historic Buildings & Places, said: 'I have to say to the House that, the more the Bill progressed, the more I became convinced that this proposal was overdevelopment and in the wrong place.
'I do not wish to say any more, other than, with sadness, that this Bill, the Holocaust Memorial Bill, will no doubt shortly be going on the statute. In my view it is not properly named. It is the Victoria Tower Gardens Destruction Bill.'
Backing the project, Tory shadow communities minister, Baroness Scott of Bybrook, said: 'We have made a solemn commitment never to forget the horrors of the Holocaust and to work to ensure that it will never happen again.
'Holocaust education is an essential part of our efforts to make good on those promises.
'It has been the policy of successive Conservative governments that we need a national Holocaust memorial and learning centre.'
Communities minister Lord Khan of Burnley said: 'Through this Bill, the Government are moving a step closer to delivering on the long-standing commitment to build a national Holocaust memorial and learning centre next to Parliament, where it rightly belongs.'
He added: 'I think there are still some outstanding concerns, but let me reassure members who have them that, subject to the passage of the Bill in the other House and on to the statute book, there will be a process for people to put their representations, views and ideas forward about prospective future planning.'
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