CFI Parliamentary Chairman (Lords) and the UK Special Envoy for Post-Holocaust Issues, Rt. Hon. The Lord Pickles, underlined that restitution for Holocaust survivors is a “priority” for the Government, in an interview with the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) last week.
He also responded to the U.S. State Department’s release of the JUST Act (Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today). The JUST Act was signed into law by U.S. President Donald Trump in May 2018, requiring the department to report to Congress on steps or lack thereof that signatories of the 2009 Terezin Declaration have taken to compensate Holocaust victims and their heirs.
Lord Pickles said that the JUST Act report, which was published in July 2020, shows that the UK has “got a pretty good record in restitution” for Holocaust survivors. He underlined: “We’ve already actively involved in restitution. We recently changed the law so that there is no period at which you can’t claim a piece of property. In terms of help and assistance, we generally rely obviously on the Claims Conference, various Jewish organisations. The Nazis, with the exception of the Channel Islands, didn’t occupy any part of the United Kingdom so property wasn’t confiscated”.
He added: “Prime Minister Johnson gives me a free hand and to get on with the job. I was part of the team that brought the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism to the United Kingdom, which adopted it [in 1998]. In terms of ensuring that we remember the Holocaust and its victims, we’ve ensured that quite a lot of money has gone into Holocaust education, Holocaust remembrance”.
On antisemitism and Holocaust denial, Lord Pickles emphasised: “We have to remember that the last phase of the Holocaust is denial. The Holocaust will be reassessed. It’s really important that we ensure that the memory and unique nature of the Holocaust is remembered and remembered truthfully because there are lots of people out there who want to distort that history and want to suggest it didn’t happen or want to pick holes in the whole thing”.
Read the interview here.
