Holocaust Memorial Bill

Debate between Baroness Deech and Lord Young of Norwood Green

Report stage
Wednesday 11th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Deech (CB)]

My Lords—

[Lord Young of Norwood Green (Lab)]

My Lords, I wish to speak to this amendment and I have not spoken in this debate yet.

Here are a few facts about myself. I am a secular Jew. One of my cousins was lucky to survive the Second World War in Rotterdam. I have experienced a great deal of antisemitism in my time, some of it through ignorance and some of it deliberate.

I have looked at this carefully and listened to the comments that have been made. I say to the noble Lord, Lord Russell of Liverpool, that I was disappointed. I read the book The Scourge of the Swastika when I was 15 years old and it made an indelible impression upon me. The author wrote another book—if noble Lords have not read it, I can recommend it—called The Knights of Bushido, which is about Japanese war crimes and is equally horrific. So I think I know a fair amount about this subject.