Holocaust Education Trust  Speech by Phil Woolas MP on 12 June 2006 at the Holocaust Educational Trust dinner event, Lancaster House, London.

Good evening my Lord, Ladies and gentlemen and a very warm welcome to Lancaster House. On behalf of the Holocaust Educational Trust I want to thank you for taking the time to be here tonight and to thank you for your continuing support of the Trust. That support is absolutely crucial, so they can carry on with their very important work.

Among our distinguished guests I would particularly like to welcome Holocaust Survivor Paul Oppenheimer, and our guest speaker tonight Sir Antony Sher. I was slightly concerned to see that among Sir Antony's many credits was a film called The Young Poisoner's Handbook. But as he is a long-standing Council member of the Holocaust Educational Trust I am sure he will not be using any tips he picked up there tonight.

Before we begin, I will just tell you the order of events this evening. After the first course has been served I will say a few words – try stopping a politician in a venue like this. Then after the second course Sir Antony will talk to us. During dessert and coffee there will be an opportunity to ask questions. So let us start.

This is one of my favourite venues and not just because of its magnificent proportions and décor – which I hope you are all enjoying tonight – but also because of its history.

I’ve been doing a bit of research and you may know that the building was originally commissioned in 1825 by the Duke of York. This is the same grand old Duke who "had ten thousand men" – the one who "marched his men to the top of the hill then he marched them down again." Not the sort of leadership strategy that I would be involved in.

However, with great originality and imagination, this building was named York House after its founder. Eventually, in 1912, it was purchased by Sir William Lever, one of the brothers of soap manufacturing fame, and being a good Lancastrian he renamed it Lancaster house. The following year he gave it to the nation. As a fellow Lancastrian, I can only applaud this clearly sensible change from York to Lancaster. However given our distinguished guest speaker's seminal portrayal of Richard III, perhaps I should not pursue this any further!

The building was used by many distinguished diners they included Lord Shaftesbury, the 19th century reformer who successfully campaigned for legislation to restrict child labour down mines and in factories. He also set up the 'ragged schools' giving poor children access to more opportunity through education. Another diner was the anti-slavery author Harriet Beecher Stowe. I am not sure if her fellow campaigner William Wilberforce was also an early guest but I will mention him because next year, of course, we will celebrate the bicentenary of his Abolition of the Slave Trade Bill becoming law.

It took Wilberforce twenty years of campaigning – and no small amount of lobbying and persuading – to get his measure through both Houses. Today we see the status quo he was battling against and the views on slavery held by many in society at that time, as totally unacceptable. But it is difficult to drive home such complete changes in attitude and it takes people of conviction to keep the issues in the public eye so the change is embedded. We must not forget these lessons of history and education is the key to change.

And that is why we are here tonight. My own association with the HET has been a life long journey - I was first involved in 1978 in the policies to highlight the history of the Holocaust with a sixth form delegation to visit Berlin. I had a particularly enlightened tutor who took us to Berlin and I have two stark and sharp memories of that trip that still bring a physical and emotional response when I recall them. First was the visit to Bergen-Belsen and the second was a visit to the Berlin wall. At age 17, I had never knowlingly met a Jewish person and I wouldn’t do so until I went to University some years later but those experiences had a profound effect on me - the site of the East West wall ensured I would never personally be seduced by Eastern socialism and dictatorial socialism and ensured that my youthful attraction to left wing idealism was placed firmly within the constraints of tolerance and democracy. 

The site of Bergen-Belsen as a young man had a less immediate impact but what it did do was to temper my soul with something which the Bishop of Manchester reminded me of recently at a service when he said “it’s not the doubts of my flock that frighten me but their certainties”  1984, I visit Yard Vashem and in 1988, with the BBC, I was part of the team that highlighted the plight of the Jewish Communities in Moscow and what was then Leningrad. In November 2002, I visited Auschwitz  with the HET and apart from what you would expect me to say about that experience the realisation that the sixth formers that were travelling with us on that day took away a bit of living reality of the Holocaust that I had experienced some 26 years previously.

Whilst I am Minister for Race and Community Cohesion the Holocaust will not be devalued in anyway what so ever.  My second reason for saying so apart from the past is the future there is not intringent in modernity and modern society that says that a holocaust may not happen again and if we scan the horizon as to what is happening in our world we can see that that the impact of Globalisation and the reaction to it, combined with a fading memory  of what happened in Germany and the anti politics vacuum that I believe that is creating is in many communities in our own country and among individuals within our communities sowing the seeds that grow in the latent and fertile soil of racial discrimination and anti Semitism. It is not about just one off incidents of graffiti or abuse there is an my view a soldering together within our society and across Europe and indeed the world that is bringing  together intolerance of the far left which I warned against when I spoke about the Berlin wall and the anti Jewish sentiment of many separatist Islamic and others. And it is that soldering together that we must melt. And the biggest challenge is to isolate and defeat the anti Semitism within today’s society whilst also fostering also equality tolerance and democracy -That is the new challenge. In my view the HET is not just about the importance of memories and tributes to the past but it is about the very real policy and political agenda in our country and across Europe.

As the MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth, and I am joined here by members from across different political parties and we are all too aware of the threat from the far right as a local member and I strongly interested in what happens when intolerance and racism are fuelled and allowed to take hold. Rifts and separations between communities give extremists the space to widen any gaps further and nurture discontent and conflict - whether that is from the far right or the intolerant left or separatists.

Ted Cantle's recent report showed we are making progress in breaking down barriers and reducing tensions between different communities but there is still a long way to go. But I will say this this is not an academic debate but a very real on the doorstep issue

For those reasons and my person background, I was thrilled when the Prime Minister asked me to take the challenge adding to the Local Government and Communities portfolio the challenge of leading on community cohesion and on race and faith relations. I am determined to tackle the multiple deprivation and inequalities that often lie at the heart of the problems they can  be complex issues.

The Government is firmly committed to social justice and in a fair society people must have access to equal rights and equal opportunities however I am conscious that those are easy words and in reaching some groups that have become isolated and difficult to get through to we will have to find new ways of acting. Indeed we cannot let far right parties fuel the tension and dress themselves up as the voice of reason by exploiting any social injustices and inequalities of opportunities that we in the body politics have allowed to remain.

Community cohesion is not just a matter for Government and public services – it is a matter for all citizens and communities. There is no doubt faith leaders have a hugely important role to play in influencing communities and behaviour. But I believe we are now in a new era and must rebuild our strategy, for two main reasons.

First, we must see every community and issue of racial or religious tension in a global context. What happens in our communities is often a reaction to what is happening in other parts of the world. Sometimes this is helpful, sometimes definitely not. But it does mean we must be vigilant and never look at our diverse society here in isolation from its global links.

The second point I want to make is that our society, and the dynamics within it, are constantly changing. We are rightly proud of our history of diversity and tolerance – for the most part. Of course 2006 is an important year as it marks the 350th Anniversary of the Resettlement of Jews in England.  This anniversary provides a timely opportunity to publicise and celebrate the vast and varied contribution Jews have made to public life in Britain. And I know that there is a debate in Parliament, on Wednesday, about that very issue.

We must build bridges between communities that allow for two-way crossings so older communities absorb the best of the new, and vice versa. It is a constant process that enriches all sides of the bridge and builds up a layer of common interests and ambitions.

This is not segregation, nor assimilation, but more in the tradition of what the Chief Rabbi has called 'bilingual' and the position, as I said earlier, that the Jewish community has reached today. There should be, there needs to be, a common language of citizenship and then a second language connecting us to family and group traditions. We all have multiple links and loyalties, depending on the different communities of place, of background and interest to which we belong.

The far right are seeking to destroy the bridges and deny the common language – and they are doing so successfully in too many places. In May's local elections the BNP more than doubled its number of councillors and we know that in Barking and Dagenham it is the second largest party on the council.

I know that you are particularly concerned about anti-Semitism not only from the far right but also from other extremist factions. Attacks on synagogues and Jewish cemeteries are totally unacceptable. Indeed no form of racism nor attacks on people and property because of their faith connections are acceptable in our society. I will look very carefully at the outcomes of the All Party Parliamentary Council Inquiry into Anti-Semitism when it reports in September. I give you my personal assurance that I will take its findings and recommendations very seriously indeed and we will give it a formal response. That is a commitment.

 We have to be very clear from the outset that there can be no devaluation of the Holocaust, there can be no excuses for people taking positions that make compromises with any other side of the argument and there can be no truck with the idea that support for the State of Israel and Zionism is a racist philosophy and there can be no truck with the idea that our campaign against terrorism which inevitably and tragically has to target the law abiding tolerant Muslim community is anything other than an attack on terrorism. We will not take any compromise with the arguments of those that say otherwise.

So I am enormously proud that the first occasion that I have spoken in public as the Minister for Community Cohesion and race relations is here and the HET I am enormously proud of how far we have come. The £1.5 million that ensures that sixth formers like myself can visit Auschwitz but please do not allow that to stem your support because without your support you would not be in a position where you could lobby for the resources that you have received from across Parliament. This is not just a hugely important and dignified response to the past of the Holocaust it is a commitment to a tolerant society and democratic society in an ever changing world - thank you very much for listening.