British PM Starmer vows to stamp out antisemitism in UK, says will be mandatory Holocaust education in schools

Read this article in:

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced on Monday that every school in the United Kingdom will be obligated to teach the Holocaust.

Starmer delivered the message in a speech at the annual Holocaust Education Trust dinner in London. Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, along with 500 guests, including Holocaust survivors and their families, were in attendance.

During his speech, Starmer promised to rid the UK of antisemitism.

“Just as I fought to bring my party back from the abyss of antisemitism, I promise you I will do the same in leading the country, he said. “We say ‘never again’ and yet in the last year we’ve seen record levels of antisemitism right here in Britain,” he continued, referring to the weekly pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the UK as “hatred marching on our streets.”

Starmer pledged that mandatory Holocaust education would become part of the solution to Britain’s skyrocketing antisemitism.

“There is currently a review of our national curriculum. Well, tonight I am making two decisions in advance of that review. First, the Holocaust will remain on the curriculum. Second, even schools who do not currently have to follow the national curriculum will have to teach the Holocaust when the new curriculum comes in,” the British prime minister announced.

“Tonight I want to set a new national ambition, that as part of their education, every student in the country should have the opportunity to hear a recorded survivor testimony. For the first time, studying the Holocaust will become a critical, vital part of every single student’s identity. And not just studying it, learning from it too and above all, acting on its lessons,” Starmer stated.

He said he was committed to providing funding to continue the Holocaust Educational Trust’s program, “Lessons from Auschwitz,” which makes it possible for hundreds of students to visit Auschwitz in Poland each year. Auschwitz was a network of concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany during World War II.

“Over the last 20 years, tens of thousands of students have had that life-changing opportunity to visit Auschwitz in person and to share their experience with their peers. The shoes, the hair, the suitcases, the train tracks, the gas chamber. It’s utterly, utterly horrific. But it’s a truth we have to remember,” the UK prime minister noted, adding that he will be joining one of the visits.

“And I know there is nothing quite as powerful as seeing it for yourself. So I will join the Holocaust Educational Trust for one of these visits myself. This government will continue funding Lessons from Auschwitz and I can confirm that tonight we are providing at least £2.2 million ($2.9 million) next year,” he said.

Starmer noted the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, recalling the day that “over a thousand people were massacred by Hamas, for the very same reason: because they were Jewish.”