Newsroom

By Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Published in the UK's Jewish Chronicle and Israel's Maariv

When I was growing up my father, a Church of Scotland Minister, visited Israel at least twice a year - and I remember vividly to this day the old projector, the slides of Israel the pictures of the famous places, the books he gave me as we heard about the struggles, history, sacrifices and achievements of Israel

But I also remember him warning my brothers and me that no one should ever forget the Holocaust and the suffering of the Jewish people. That's why in the past few years I have visited Yad Vashem and the Washington Holocaust museum, seen the sombre Jewish museum in Berlin and met survivors of Auschwitz and other concentration camps

No one should ever forget. Each generation must learn and understand the dark forces and culpable failures that allowed prejudice, discrimination and persecution to lead to a vast programme of mass slaughter that spanned a continent and affected the whole world

To ensure that a generation of British young people know about the horrors of the Holocaust, I’ve been one of the people helping to make visits to Auschwitz possible for thousands of young people

As Chancellor, I announced that the Government would provide £1.5 million to the Holocaust Educational Trust to pay for two students from every sixth form in the country to visit Auschwitz and learn for themselves of the tragedies that follow when people stand by. Last month we renewed that pledge by announcing that another £4.65 million would be provided to continue the programme

As a result, HET’s work has expanded massively, from just two trips a year for hundreds of students, to 12 trips each year for thousands. Last year 3,000 pupils travelled to Auschwitz, this year 4,000 - as every secondary school and FE College is offered the chance for at least two pupils to see its dark truths

Our grants have made it possible for children from my own old school and my constituency of Kirkcaldy to travel to Poland to see the horrors of the Holocaust for themselves, and I was not only surprised but inspired by what then happened

In memory of Holocaust victims and Survivors they inaugurated what they called the Anne Frank week - and I launched it as schools organised events, readings, plays, film shows and musical performances, to remember the struggles. A memorial now stands in our Remembrance Gardens in Kirkcaldy with an inscription from the Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks - reminding us that the Holocaust must never be forgotten

And much of what happened in Kirkcaldy is now happening in schools and colleges right across the country as every student that visits Auschwitz comes back to tell their fellow pupils what they have learnt and what it means

So I want to do more to increase the visits that have made such a difference to young people in my constituency. And I want to do more to empower teachers in schools to be able to tell children more of the events of the past and to warn of the dangers of them happening again

I want to make this pledge – as long as I am Prime Minister, this funding will continue so that all our children will learn from their peers what happened during Europe’s darkest hours

It is more than 60 years after the liberation of Belsen, Treblinka and Auschwitz, and the last of our survivors now grow old. I am always humbled when I hear Survivors speak, not just to hear of the great strength and bravery which should serve as an example to us all, but even more the humbling sense of duty and commitment which means that even today they use their experience of these terrible events to create a better future for all of us

Hearing Survivors speak in schools has a huge impact on young people, So I want to work with the HET to ensure we enable as many young people as possible to hear their testimony first hand while we still can, to make sure HET's inspiring ‘Recollections DVD’ which they produced with Steven Spielberg is in the hands of every citizenship and history teacher and to help HET work with children and families of Survivors to explore how to pass on their parents’ stories

I want to encourage every community organising local Holocaust memorial events to show that our country – more than sixty years after these terrible events – wants to come together, not just to pay our respects to all who suffered at the hands of the Nazis and in other more recent genocides; but to ensure that these horrendous crimes are never forgotten; and to promise that we will – all of us – in whatever way we can, work to ensure that they are never repeated

I learnt about the Holocaust as a child from my parents and hearing stories of the suffering, the appalling cruelty and the scale of the slaughter left me with a conviction that I have held ever since :

A conviction that prejudice leads to intolerance, then to victimisation, and eventually to persecution

A conviction that we have a duty – every single one of us – not to stand by, but to make a difference, to fight discrimination, intolerance and bigotry

I know that similar convictions have been awoken in students who travelled to Auschwitz and then came home and went out campaigning against persecution

And I know that if just one student today is inspired by learning about the horrors of the Holocaust then we are helping make Britain a better place.

to read the article in Hebrew.

For more details, please contact the

Back to newsroom