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- Britain, the Holocaust and its Legacy
Britain, the Holocaust and its Legacy
Why Britain and the Holocaust?
The persecution and mass murder of the Jews by the Nazis and their collaborators, along with the cold-blooded application of murderous racial-biological policies to millions upon millions of Europeans, may have happened over 60 years ago on the continent but it is a part of British history and it has disturbing implications for us today.
The Holocaust is a part of British History.
The Holocaust is a part of our national story because it impinges directly on the history of these islands and its peoples. Thousands of Jews found refuge in Britain during the 1930s and several hundred survivors of the death camps came to Britain after the war. The refugees and survivors eventually became British citizens and built families in this country. Many ordinary British people helped the refugees and some were subsequently recognised as Righteous Gentiles for saving Jews from danger.
Britain fought Nazi Germany for six years and, thanks to their courage and sacrifice, British service personnel helped to save the remnant of European Jewry from annihilation. British troops liberated the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and rescued tens of thousands of Jews from death.
However, questions remain over whether more could have been done, and sooner, to succour the victims of Nazi persecution. The British Government and the public knew about the Nazi persecution of Jews, homosexuals, Sinti and Roma, and political opponents of the regime, yet it maintained normal diplomatic and trade relations with the Third Reich.
- 2002 Theme Paper (pdf)
