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British parliament members sign letter supporting new Holocaust memorial

The National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre is slated to be built in Victoria Tower Gardens, Westminster.

The Hyde Park Holocaust Memorial in London, June 4, 2007. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
The Hyde Park Holocaust Memorial in London, June 4, 2007. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

More than 150 parliament members in the United Kingdom from across the political spectrum have signed a letter supporting the Westminster Holocaust memorial, remarking that it would “stand as a testimony” to combating bigotry.

The National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre is slated to be built in Victoria Tower Gardens, Westminster.

The letter was in response to criticism from the Royal Parks, which oversees the gardens, about the planning application for the project, which costs a bit more than $130.36 million, complaining about “the impact it will have on a popular public amenity space in an area of the capital with few public parks,” reported the Jewish News in the United Kingdom.

London’s Mayor Sadiq Khan, however, has been in favor of the project.

The museum comes amid a rise in anti-Semitism in the United Kingdom, in part fomented by Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has an extensive anti-Semitic record.

The inscription on the face of the Hyde Park Holocaust Memorial in London, quoting the book of Lamentations in Hebrew and English. Credit: David Arvidsson via Wikimedia Commons.
The inscription on the face of the Hyde Park Holocaust Memorial in London, quoting the book of Lamentations both in Hebrew and English. Credit: David Arvidsson via Wikimedia Commons.

Existing Holocaust memorials and resources include the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre in Nottinghamshire; the Imperial War Museum Holocaust Exhibition in London; the Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust and Genocide in London; the Hyde Park Holocaust memorial in Hyde Park, London; and the memorial at the Church of St. Michael the Greater in Stamford.

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