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ABSTRACT
As we approach the post-witness era this paper investigates the changing role of the Holocaust and Holocaust survivors in twenty-first century British politics and culture. In the first part, the article discusses the ways in which, through their role in educational initiatives and commemorative culture, survivors have acquired an increased visibility in British understandings of the Holocaust. For a significant period of time, this process was characterized by a tendency to abstract survivors from their Jewish identities to ensure that they could more easily act as mediators of a universalized, yet highly domesticated, Holocaust narrative with meanings for contemporary British society. However, in the second part the article will argue that, starting from the second decade of the twenty-first century, it is also possible to discern an increasing acknowledgement of British Holocaust survivors’ ‘difference.’ It will be suggested that British politicians have attempted to mobilize survivors, the Anglo-Jewish community they are seen to represent, and the Holocaust more in general, in Britain’s domestic battle against Islamic extremism and in the pursuit of the rather elusive concept of ‘British values.’
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributors
Kara Critchell is a Lecturer in Modern British and European History at the University of Chester.
Notes
1 Cameron, “Speech to the Community Security Trust.”
2 Cameron, “British Values.”
3 Cameron, “Holocaust Memorial Will Stand beside Parliament.”
4 Following funding from the Pears Foundation the exhibition housed at the Imperial War Museum is to be re-designed and redeveloped. It is anticipated that the new exhibition will be open by 2021. IWM, “Press Release.”
5 Jack, “We Need New Ways.”
6 Weiss, “Save Victoria Tower Gardens”; Leigh, “Hansard”; Sherwood, “Team Led by David Adjaye.”
7 UK Holocaust Memorial Commission & Malcom Reading Consultants, International Design Competition: Expression of Interest, 7.
8 Cameron, “25th Anniversary of the Holocaust Educational Trust.”
9 Ibid.
10 For further discussion of the debates surrounding the position of the Holocaust on the national curriculum and the role of the Trust in this see: Critchell, “Holocaust Education in British Society and Culture”; Pearce, Holocaust Consciousness; Russell, Teaching the Holocaust in School History, 62–89.
11 Karen Pollock cited in Jarvis, “We Want to Keep Our Father’s Story Alive.”
12 National Holocaust Centre and Museum, “Forever Project.”
13 Holocaust Educational Trust, “Survivor Stories.”
14 Holocaust Survivors’ Friendship Association, HSFA Speaker Programme.
15 Holocaust Educational Trust, “Outreach Programme.”
16 Inner London Education Authority, Auschwitz Yesterday’s Racism; Holocaust Educational Trust, A History of the Holocaust claimed to explore Jewish life under the heading of ‘The Jews and Anti-Jewish Hatred.’ Yet the information provided about Jewish life was only a simplified description of religious and scientific antisemitism and this was the only way in which students were encouraged to engage with the notion of Jewish life before the war.
17 Holocaust Educational Trust, Pre-war Jewish Life Activity.
18 Ibid.
19 Cawood, “Student Showcase: Photographs.”
20 Rackham and Dosso, “Nothing Could Prepare Us for the Reality.”
21 Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, The Dignity of Difference.
22 Holocaust Educational Trust and National Union of Teachers, Martin and Erica’s Journey.
23 Discussion regarding immigration and social cohesion has become increasingly volatile in the wake of the vote held in 2015 as to whether Britain should leave the European Union. Nevertheless, these issues were also extensively discussed in amongst policy makers in the years preceding that vote. See: Hickman, Crowley and Mai, Immigration and Social Cohesion in the UK; Casey, The Casey Review.
24 Magen, “Using Testimony in Holocaust Education.”
25 For a more detailed discussion of this theme see Critchell, “Holocaust Education in British Society and Culture.”
26 Foster et al., What Do Students Know, 135.
27 Ibid., 107.
28 Critchell, “Holocaust Education in British Society and Culture,” 234–61.
29 Critchell and Sharples, Holocaust Education, 4.
30 Levy and Sznaider, The Holocaust and Memory in the Global Age, 133.
31 Pearce, “The Holocaust in the National Curriculum after 25 years.”
32 Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, “Statement of Commitment.”
33 Ibid.
34 Rees, “Catastrophe for Humanity.”
35 Alexander, “On the Global and Local Representations,” 177.
36 Levene, “The Political Misuse of Holocaust Memorial Day.”
37 Alexander, “On the Global and Local Representations,” 174.
38 Dean, Aversion and Erasure, 15.
39 Shepherd, “Words Cannot Express.”
40 Dean, Aversion and Erasure, 15.
41 Critchell, “Holocaust Education in British Society and Culture,” 203–60.
42 Levy and Sznaider, “The Institutionalization of Cosmopolitan Morality.” For further discussion see also, Pearce, “Britain’s Holocaust Memorial Day.”
43 Ward, “Kindertransport”; Critchell, “Remembering and Forgetting.”
44 Ruth Jacobson cited in Ward, “Kindertransport.”
45 Erika Judge cited in Ward, “Kindertransport.”
46 Critchell, “Remembering and Forgetting,” 40–5.
47 Peck, “Government Backtracks on Pledge.”
48 Perkins, "Blair Sets Out Vision for 'New Patriotism'.”
49 May, “Hansard, Column 52.”
50 Blair cited in “Blair Warns of Duty to Integrate.”
51 Cameron, "Speech at Munich Security Conference."
52 Community Security Trust, Antisemitic Incidents January–June 2017, 4.
53 Robertson, “Plans for New Jewish 'Eruv' Zone across Westminster’; Millar, “Plans for 'Mega Mosque' Three Times Bigger than St Pauls Cathedral Blocked.”
54 Malik, “Muslims Are Now Getting the Same Treatment Jews Had a Century Ago.”
55 Gearon, “Education, Security and Intelligence Studies,” 265.
56 HM Government, Prevent Strategy, 14; HM Government, Contest Annual Report, 12.
57 HM Government, CONTEST: The United Kingdom's Strategy for Countering Terrorism.
58 HM Government, Prevent Strategy, 34.
59 HM Government, Protecting Vulnerable People, 3.
60 Durodie, “Securitising Education to Prevent Terrorism,” 22.
61 May, “Hansard, Column 53.”
62 Department for Education, “New Standards Raise the Bar for Teachers”; Department for Communities and Local Government, Creating the Conditions for Integration; Department for Education, Teachers' Standards: Guidance for School Leaders.
63 Cameron, “British Values.”
64 On the backlash to Gove’s policy, see “Michael Gove Redrafts New History Curriculum after Outcry”; “Gove's 'Gentle Tweak' to History Curriculum”; “A History Teacher's Appraisal of Michael Gove's Approach to the Teaching of History” and Evans, “Michael Gove's History Curriculum is a Pub Quiz Not an Education.”
65 Lee, “Understanding History,” 129–64; Waldman, “The Politics of History Teaching in England and France during the 1980s,” 201; Crawford, “A History of the Right: The Battle for Control of National Curriculum History 1989–1994”; Slater, The Politics of History Teaching: A Humanity Dehumanized?, 1; Phillips, “Contesting the Past, Constructing the Future,” 40–53.
66 Nottingham County Council, “Pupils Explore Meaning of ‘British Values’ at National Holocaust Centre.”
67 UNESCO, Preventing Violent Extremism Through Education.
68 Weale, "Teachers Urged to ‘Disengage’ from the Promotion of British values."
69 Department for Communities and Local Government, Creating the Conditions for Integration.
70 Pickles, “House of Commons Written Statement,” 154.
71 Morgan, “Speech to the Holocaust Educational Trust.”
72 Alsop School, “British Values.”
73 Sir Charles Kao UTC, “Susie Barnett: Holocaust Survivor Gives Talk on Experiences”; Broadoak Mathematics and Computing College, "Holocaust Memorial Day: Promoting British Values.”
74 Simon, "Beyond Limits? Overcoming the Challenges of a Holocaust Museum."
75 Cameron, “Speech to the Community Security Trust.”
76 Karpf, “We’ve Been Here before.”
77 Kushner, “Oral History,” 85.
78 Cameron, “Speech to the Community Security Trust.”
79 Gove, “Speech to the Holocaust Educational Trust.”
80 Kudenko and Phillips, “The Model of Integration?,” 1534.
81 Sacks, “Giving and Belonging.”
82 Mirvis, "Faiths in Britain."
83 Ware, “Why Our Experience of Assimilation Should be a Beacon.”
84 Sharples, “Reconstructing the Past,” 57.
85 HRH Elizabeth II, “Holocaust Memorial Day 2015.”
86 Dysch, "Theresa May Urges Closer UK Ties with Israel Post-Brexit"; Theresa May, "May's Speech to the Conservative Friends of Israel."
87 Critchell, “Holocaust Education in British Society and Culture,” Foster et al., What do Students Know; Gray, Contemporary Debates in Holocaust Education; Pearce, Holocaust Consciousness.
88 Javid, “Speech to Holocaust Educational Trust.”
89 UK Holocaust Memorial Commission, Britain’s Promise to Remember, 9.