Britain Wakes Up
Andrew Morris / London

TONY BLAIR: `As survivors age, it becomes our duty to take up the mantle' (Max Nash / AP)

(February 28, 2000) A NATIONAL RADIO PHONE-IN is in full flow. Today's discussion centers on the new British government decision to hold an annual Holocaust Memorial Day, and opinion is far from unanimous. For every caller in favor of singling out the Holocaust for commemoration, another complains that there is too much emphasis on something that happened so long ago. "Why should the Jews have a monopoly on suffering?" asks a caller from Manchester.

The debate has been reflected in the national press, with several critics deriding the commemoration as an example of "gesture politics" by Prime Minister Tony Blair. Writing in the Guardian, for example, historian Geoffrey Wheatcroft - whose latest book "The Controversy of Zion," tracing the rise of Jewish nationalism, won the American National Jewish Book Award - contended that the lag-time between event and commemoration made the initiative untenable. "Perhaps there was a case for a memorial day in the immediate shadow of the murder," he wrote, "but why nearly 60 years afterwards?" Another dissenting columnist, Nick Cohen in the Observer, described the day as "voyeuristic hypocrisy."

But Blair himself is full square behind the decision. "The Holocaust, and the lessons it teaches us for our own time, must never be forgotten," the prime minister declared in late-January, establishing January 27 - the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau - as the official memorial date. "As Holocaust survivors age, it becomes more and more our duty to take up the mantle and tell each new generation what happened."

The establishment of Holocaust Memorial Day is just one of several indications of a new British awareness of the Holocaust and its implications - a coincidental counterpart to the Irving-Lipstadt libel trial. The Holocaust Educational Trust took over 200 British students and teachers to Auschwitz-Birkenau last year as part of a "Lessons from Auschwitz" course. And in June, the queen is scheduled to open a permanent Holocaust exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, funded with over 12 million pounds from the national lottery, which will include a section dedicated to the thorny issue of Britain's war-time response to events in Europe.

Apropos the Irving case, parliament has also considered outlawing Holocaust denial. A bill floated before the last election had Blair's backing, but it failed to complete the parliamentary process. And while supporters still hope to include it within laws outlawing incitement to racial hatred, it is now low on the agenda.

Related articles:
The Holocaust on Trial - A Hitler apologist claims there were no Nazi death factories
Missed Opportunities in Stockholm - Analysis by Dr. Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Center
Confronting Hitler's Defender - An interview with David Irving