Lord Harrington of Watford
Main Page: Lord Harrington of Watford (Conservative - Life peer)(10 years, 3 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Nick Boles
My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and I know that the Secretary of State for Education has made it clear that it must be open for a free school to be the promoter of any new school that is set up.
Richard Harrington (Watford) (Con)
5. What recent steps his Department has taken to facilitate holocaust survivors in sharing their testimony in communities throughout the UK.
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Eric Pickles)
Hearing survivors’ stories is one of the best ways for communities to remember the obscenity of the holocaust. That is why we have given over £1.8 million to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, so that those stories can be preserved and shared more widely.
Richard Harrington
I thank the Secretary of State for that answer. I hope he will join me in commending the work of the Holocaust Educational Trust, of which I am a trustee. We must commend its work in enabling holocaust survivors to share their stories with more than 70,000 young people every year. Does my right hon. Friend also accept that there will be a big challenge ahead in regard to passing on what happened during the holocaust when there are no more survivors around to communicate that message?
Mr Pickles
Of course I agree with my hon. Friend. I believe that the trust is doing a series of films, and organising events, where the children of holocaust survivors are taking up witness. One of the most effective things I have ever seen was a film where the daughter of a holocaust survivor took up her father’s testimony. When he was a child, his mother had said, as her final parting to him, “I have lived a long life. You’ve barely started. Do what you need to survive.” It occurred to me that not only was the voice of the father being heard; we were also hearing the voice of a grandmother whom the daughter had never met. That is the final victory over Hitler and over the obscenity of Nazism.