Job losses as Holocaust Centre faces cash crisis

Up to nine redundancies will be made at the Holocaust Centre in Nottinghamshire in a bid to alleviate its financial crisis

The memorial and educational centre founded by non-Jewish brothers Stephen and James Smith 14 years ago needs to slash its annual budget from £800,000 to £500,000 and activities such as professional training could be axed. It intends to focus its resources on educating the young — 22,000 primary and secondary pupils visit the centre every year.

Short-term financial support has been provided by the Pears Foundation and the centre has launched an urgent appeal for a further £170,000 to cover the expected shortfall in next year’s budget.

Earlier this year, Stephen Smith took the job as director of Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation in California. James Smith, who has remained, says the centre has struggled to make ends meet in recent years.

“We were doing OK for the first decade but for the last four years it has been hand to mouth. We are attracting more children and have more professional staff so the costs have gone up and we have just not been able to bridge that extra funding. The financial situation in the last year hasn’t helped and there have been donations we were expecting that didn’t come.”

The stark choice had been closure or a radical restructuring of operations. “We have had to slim down hugely and that means cutting staff and other activities.”

It was particularly disheartening as “there has never been a more important time to tackle extremism. When we should be ramping up the work, we’re cutting back”.

JC

Note: The Holocaust Centre website is here. You can donate here.

Poll: BNP leader Nick Griffin 'lied' over Holocaust

More than two in three Britons believe Nick Griffin is a Holocaust denier despite the BNP leader’s claim to the contrary during his controversial Question Time appearance.

In a poll conducted exclusively for the JC by YouGov this week, 1,409 adults were asked if they were convinced by Griffin’s belated acceptance of the Holocaust. Sixty-nine per cent responded that “Griffin is still at heart a Holocaust denier and only pretends to have changed his views to make the BNP appear more moderate”.

Just 14 per cent agreed that Griffin now genuinely acknowledged that the Shoah did take place. Among Labour and Lib-Dem voters, four out of five said Griffin still denied the Holocaust. YouGov also asked whether British Jews had “reason to be fearful if the BNP gained significantly in strength”. Fifty-four per cent responded that Jews would have cause for fear — with the figure rising to 64 per cent among Londoners polled. Seventy-two per cent said Muslims should fear a more powerful BNP.

The responses demonstrate that the BNP has failed to achieve the hoped-for bounce from Griffin’s slot on Question Time, which attracted a record eight million viewers.

YouGov president Peter Kellner was surprised that “such a big majority thought Griffin was still a Holocaust denier”. It showed that attempts to convince voters that he believed in the Holocaust, and was a friend of Israel, had failed. “However, a lot of people still support what the BNP stands for.” If its support reached 10 per cent, it could become a serious and divisive political force.

In an earlier poll for the Daily Telegraph, YouGov found that 66 per cent of Britons would not under any circumstances consider voting BNP in a local, general or European election. Only four per cent would “definitely consider voting BNP”. Asked for their views on a variety of fringe parties, 71 per cent expressed negative opinions about the BNP, as opposed to two per cent who were “very positive” and seven per cent who were “fairly positive”.

Community and anti-racist leaders were split over the impact made by Griffin on Question Time. Veteran anti-fascist Gerry Gable said it had served to wake up the many who might have been persuaded that the BNP had reformed.

Holocaust Educational Trust chairman Lord Janner felt Griffin had come across badly, “but the fact of his appearance has given status to the BNP, which in the long run could do great harm to the Jewish and other minority communities”.

Jewish Council for Racial Equality director Dr Edie Friedman said “Griffin’s comment about the BNP supporting Israeli actions in Gaza was a sinister attempt to demonstrate pro-Jewish and anti-Muslim credentials.”

JC Online

Merkel tells Knesset of shame over Nazis

• Chancellor pledges closer relations with Israel
• Five MPs in protest at use of German in parliament

Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor, told Israel's parliament yesterday that the Holocaust filled her people with shame and promised a closer relationship with the Jewish state.

About 1,000 people gathered in the Knesset in Jerusalem to hear the 20-minute speech and gave Merkel a standing ovation. Five MPs stayed away in protest, saying they did not want to hear German in the Knesset, an indication that there are some in Israel who oppose the warming of relations between the two countries.

Merkel, 53, was the first German chancellor to be invited to address the parliament and spoke directly about the Nazi legacy. "The mass murder of 6 million Jews, carried out in the name of Germany, has brought indescribable suffering to the Jewish people, Europe and the entire world," she said.

"The Shoah fills us Germans with shame," she said, using the Hebrew word for the Holocaust. "I bow to the victims. I bow to all those who helped the survivors."

During her three-day visit, Merkel and Ehud Olmert, Israel's prime minister, reached an agreement on joint investment, military cooperation and other projects in science and research. They also discussed Iran's nuclear programme on which Israel has been pressing its allies to take a tough stance.

"Germany is setting its sights on a diplomatic solution, together with its partners," Merkel told the Knesset. "The German government will, if Iran does not give in, continue to resolutely defend sanctions ... The threats the Iranian president is launching against Israel and the Jewish people are without doubt a particular cause for concern.

"His repeated vilifications and the Iranian nuclear programme are a danger to peace and security. If Iran gained access to the atomic bomb, this would have devastating consequences ... This must be prevented." Olmert described Merkel as a "constant friend".

Officially her visit has been a major undertaking, with the German flag flown over the Knesset building and a joint session of the Israeli and German cabinets in Jerusalem. Yet the Israeli press has said little on the trip or on the warming ties even though it appears to signal a markedly new engagement between the two countries.

"It is quite extraordinary that she radiates so much friendship and support for the government of Israel," the Israeli historian Tom Segev told Associated Press. "The public discourse in Germany is much more critical of Israel than she is. I don't really remember a time when Germany so wholeheartedly and uncritically stood by the government of Israel."

There was some dissent. Anat Peri, an Israeli academic, wrote in the rightwing Makor Rishon-Hatzofe newspaper yesterday about concern over Germany's continuing trade with Iran and the country's reluctance to endorse military action against Tehran. "I have a profound suspicion that this policy is not motivated only by economic and political interests, but also expresses a deep hostility to the Jewish people, and identification with those who threaten to destroy Israel, in the hearts of many Germans, in spite of the official declarations of support for Israel," Peri wrote.

Israel and Germany established diplomatic relations in 1965 and Germany has paid $39.4bn to Holocaust survivors in Israel. Merkel did not visit the Palestinians on her trip, although Germany will host a joint peace conference later in the year. She spoke in support of the struggling peace process, but was careful not to voice strong criticism of Israel's policies.

Guardian