PM's Holocaust Commission meets President Jimmy Carter
2 Jun 2014 12:40 PM
The Holocaust Commission
met former US President Jimmy Carter as part of a public consultation on how
the UK should remember the Holocaust.
Prime Minister David
Cameron’s Holocaust Commission marked the final day of its public consultation last week (30 May)
by taking evidence from former US president Jimmy Carter, whose own commission
in 1978 led to the creation of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in
Washington, D.C.
As the Prime Minister’s
Commission considers whether the UK should have its own Holocaust Memorial
Museum, Holocaust Survivor Ben Helfgott and Commission Chair Mick Davis met the
former US President in London to discuss the creation of the Washington
Museum.
President Carter
said:
We must never forget what
happened in the Holocaust. Prime Minister David Cameron’s Commission with
all-party support is set to make an important contribution to this
work.
Holocaust Survivor Ben Helfgott
said:
Few people in the world have
made a greater contribution to Holocaust Commemoration than President Carter.
It is great to have his support for our work and to be able to learn from the
experience of his own Commission.
The meeting comes on the final
day of the UK public consultation which has now received almost 2,500 written
submissions and seen over 1,000 people attend consultation events across the
country, including one of the largest gatherings of Holocaust Survivors in
British history at Wembley Stadium earlier this month.
The Chair of President
Carter’s Commission, Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, is also
supporting the Prime Minister’s Commission, including by acting as the
head judge of a competition to find a young person to sit on the Commission.
Hundreds of young people from all over Britain have written essays with their
ideas on how Britain should commemorate the Holocaust. The winner will be
invited to join the Commission for its deliberations in the second half of the
year.
The Commission will make
recommendations to the Prime Minister by the end of the year.