Holocaust charity to review ‘governance processes’ after citing Gaza on HMD invite

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT) has announced it is undertaking an “independent review of its governance processes and procedures in relation to major communications”.

This comes after the JC revealed that the trust had used text relating to the war in Gaza in the official invite to the UK’s Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony.

In a statement on Monday, HMDT described the incident as an “error in the wording of the invitation” and that they had “unreservedly apologised” for this.

Last month, the JC discovered that the official invitation for the ceremony referred to the “devastating violence against Palestinian civilians in Gaza” as a result of Israel’s war against terrorist group Hamas following its atrocities on October 7.

The review into HMDT will be led by Lord Harrington, a former minister under Theresa May and Boris Johnson and former Conservative MP for Watford.

Harrington, who is Jewish, was described by HMDT as “a long-standing and widely respected supporter of Holocaust commemoration and education”.

HMDT’s statement continued to say that the review would make recommendations to the organisation’s board “with the aim of ensuring that any future major communications from the Trust are issued only after full and proper discussion and agreement by its Board of Trustees.”

In November, the JC also exposed that HMDT was nearly involved in a similar incident relating to using text regarding the conflict in Gaza on invitations to events but were stopped by the group’s honorary vice president Lord Pickles.

The former Conservative cabinet member told the JC that while he didn’t believe it was the intention of HMDT to “undermine the Holocaust” – and the staff were “decent people” – he criticised a “benign woke-ism” within the organisation that resulted in actions which outraged many in the Jewish community.

In an interview, revealed that “last year, they were having a similar kind of dilemma in their language” but “through persuasion”, and after his direct intervention, the text relating to Gaza was not used.

“You can't do the Holocaust-light. You can’t water down the Holocaust”, he added.

HMDT went on to say that “staff will now remain fully focused on the significant commemorations in January 2025 to mark 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau so as to ensure that millions of people in the UK continue to learn the lessons from the unique, world-changing and unprecedented horrors of the Holocaust.”

HMDT’s original actions caused discomfort for several Holocaust survivors and their descendants.

One, who spoke to the JC anonymously, said they were “uncomfortable as a survivor in the event being politicised”.

Lord Carlile KC, the former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation and son of a Holocaust survivor, said HMDT “should have been much more careful in the words they used”.

He continued: “The Shoah is a uniquely horrible event that is not being replicated in Gaza. Whatever criticism one might make of Israel’s military tactics, to equate it with the Holocaust is factually and legally inaccurate.”

At the time, HMDT Chair Laura Marks CBE said: “We apologise unreservedly that in our letter of invitation to the Holocaust Memorial Day National ceremony next January we referred to the Israel Gaza conflict. This was not appropriate and should not have happened.”