From early on the project faced a veritable
storm of dissent, rarely about the concept itself, but about the selected location
and later about the approved design. Despite
these widespread objections the government submitted its planning application to
the City of Westminster, the local authority responsible for the chosen site. But complaints grew to such proportions that in
November 2019 the application was “called in” by then housing minister,
Esther McVey – in other words the government, as it was entitled to do under
planning legislation, took over responsibility for the project.
In order to provide a forum
where all objections could be aired, considered and evaluated, McVey’s boss,
Secretary of State Robert Jenrick, set up a public inquiry under the chairmanship of an independent planning
inspector, David Morgan.
Before the Inquiry commenced on October 6, 2020, the odour of antisemitism had begun to pervade the scene. Jenrick is married to Michal, the Israeli daughter of Holocaust survivors, and their children are being brought up as Jewish. The London Historic Parks and Gardens Trust, claiming there had been a conflict of interest in the government’s handling of the planning application for the memorial, legally challenged Jenrick. However he had already recused himself from any decisions relating to the memorial. The final ruling on its location and design, following the report of the Inquiry chairman, will be taken by McVey’s successor as housing minister, Christopher Pincher.
On October 5 the High Court ruled that Jenrick
had acted properly in regard to the planning application.
Meanwhile Jenrick revealed that he had
been subjected to “antisemitic smears” over his role in the proposal, and was
living under police protection following threats to “kill his family” and “burn
his house down”.
“The fact that I have
been subjected to these smears,” he said, “and my family to antisemitic abuse
and death threats, only shows the paramount importance of the memorial.”
To put the present
situation into context, the UK already has five significant Holocaust centers
serving the public. Three are sited in
London.
The first public
memorial in Britain dedicated to victims of the Holocaust was opened in Hyde
Park, in the heart of London’s West End, in 1983. Conceived as a garden of boulders surrounded
by white-stemmed birch trees, the largest boulder is inscribed with text from
the Book of Lamentations: "For
these I weep. Streams of tears flow from my eyes because of the destruction of
my people." A service of
remembrance is held at the site every year.
The long-established Wiener Library for the
Study of the Holocaust and Genocide, situated close to the University of
London, is essentially a literary and academic resource. The most recent memorial is a brand new and
impressive Holocaust Learning Centre opened in 2020 within the Imperial War
Museum (IWM).
In addition to these London-based hubs, the
county of Nottinghamshire, in the heart of England, houses the Beth Shalom
National Holocaust Centre and Museum, while further north the town of
Huddersfield boasts its very own Holocaust Exhibition and Learning Centre.
It was back in 2014 that David Cameron,
then Britain’s prime minister, set up a cross-party Holocaust Commission tasked
with deciding what more Britain needed to do to ensure that the memory of the
Holocaust was preserved, and that the lessons it teaches are never
forgotten.
The Commission sent out a
national call for evidence and, in light of the opinions it had received,
issued its report and recommendations on January 27, 2015. They were instantly accepted in full by the
government and endorsed by the Opposition.
The
Commission proposed that a striking and prominent new National Memorial should
be built in central London in order to make a bold statement about the
importance Britain places on preserving the memory of the Holocaust, and stand
as a permanent affirmation of the values of British society. Moreover, a world-class Learning Centre should be placed alongside the memorial ‒ a must-see destination using the
latest technology to engage and inspire vast numbers of visitors.
In
addition to conveying the enormity of the Holocaust and its impact, reflecting
the centrality to Nazi objectives of the destruction of European Jewry, the
memorial and learning centre should also represent the fate of all other
victims of Nazi persecutions ‒ Roma, disabled people, Slavs, Jehovah’s
Witnesses, homosexuals, and all the political opponents of the Nazi regime.
In accepting the
Commission’s proposals, Cameron said: “Today we stand together... in remembrance
of those who were murdered in the darkest hour of human history… united in our
resolve to fight prejudice and discrimination in all its forms.”
To help the government
carry the project forward, it set up a UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation (UKHMF)
composed of eminent establishment figures including the Chief Rabbi, Ephraim
Mirvis. The Foundation quickly embarked on a dual search – for a suitable
location and a winning design.
As regards a site for
the new memorial, the UKHMF committee based their search on the Commission’s
recommendation that it should be in “central London”. It was for this reason that they rejected an
offer from the Imperial War Museum to expand its own Holocaust Learning Centre,
then in the planning stage, into the National Memorial. The IWM, although only a mile from the Houses
of Parliament, is situated south of the river Thames and is not generally
perceived to be in central London. After considering more than fifty possible
settings, the Foundation settled on Victoria Tower Gardens, a small public park
to the south of the Palace of Westminster which houses Britain’s parliament.
It was a decision that
immediately gave rise to a storm of protest based on a wide range of
objections. Despite being assailed from
all sides, the UKHMF stuck to its guns and invited architectural firms to
submit designs sited in the Gardens.
The international
competition attracted 92 entries. The
winning team, announced by the 13-panel jury In October 2017, was led by the
British-Ghanaian architect Sir David Adjaye. Its design features 23 large
bronze fin structures, the gaps between the fins representing the 22 countries
where the Holocaust destroyed Jewish communities. Each acts as a separate path
down to a hall leading into the Learning Center.
The public Inquiry, held on 16 days between October 6 and November 13, 2020, was designed to provide a platform for every organization, group or individual with an interest in the memorial. Residents in the area served by the Victoria Tower Gardens felt that the memorial would eat up too much of the limited green space – an objection echoed by the Royal Parks and by Westminster Council itself.
The gardens house three
other memorials. Some felt that the one
commemorating the victims of slavery would be “engulfed”. The gardens also contain a children’s
playground. This facility, too, it was
claimed, would be downgraded and damaged.
In a written submission, Lord Carlile, a former independent reviewer of
terror laws, warned that a Holocaust memorial next to parliament would create a
target for terrorists. He told the BBC that he had a strong interest in the
issue. “Many of my close relatives were exterminated in the Holocaust. My
half-sister’s mother was murdered in Auschwitz. I am absolutely determined that
this should be remembered properly. I just feel that this isn’t the right place
for it.”
In September 2018 the
UKHMF hosted a public exhibition featuring the winning design in its agreed
location. A further flood of comment
followed. As a result alterations and modifications were made, and the revised
design was submitted to Westminster Council on 29 April 2019. Westminster
took the new design on board, and continued with the consultation it had opened
with the public.
In August 2019 Westminster
City Council wrote to the UKHMF warning that the memorial was “heading towards
an unfavourable recommendation” by its planners. In response the Foundation claimed
that “excessive weight” was being given to the number of objections raised, an
accusation robustly rejected by the council. Even so, in February 2020
Westminster City Council's planning committee did vote unanimously to reject
the government’s planning application, saying it contravened planning rules on
size, design and location.
Now Westminster’s responsibility
in the matter has been taken over by the government. On the inspector chosen to head its public inquiry,
David Morgan, was placed the onerous task of hearing all points of view
concerning the location and the design of the memorial, assessing their merits
in the light of the criteria already laid down by Commission, and making
recommendations to assist the government in its final decision. His report has to be presented to the
Secretary of State on or before 30 April 2021.
Since the criteria set
out in the Holocaust Commission’s report of January 2015 were accepted in full
and approved by parliament, there can be no doubt that Britain will eventually
have a new National Holocaust Memorial. Equally
set in stone is that it must be “striking and prominent”, and “prominently
located in Central London”. In addition the
Memorial must be co-located with a world-class Learning Centre which is to be a
“must-see destination using the latest technology to engage and inspire vast
numbers of visitors.”
The big question still
to be resolved is whether the Adjaye team’s design set in the Victoria Tower
Gardens is to be given the go-ahead, or whether the whole project is to be shunted
back to square one.
Published in the Jerusalem Report, issue dated 11 Jan 2021, and available for subscribers at:
https://www.jpost.com/jerusalem-report/the-uk-agonizes-over-its-new-holocaust-memorial-653732
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