Sir Keir Starmer uses Berlin Holocaust Memorial as prop in political video that does not even mention Holocaust
Sir Keir Starmer has used the Berlin Holocaust Memorial as prop in a political campaigning video that does not mention the Holocaust.
The video, which is about how Sir Keir hopes to draw inspiration from a political party in Germany, uses footage of Sir Keir and Labour MP David Lammy walking through the Berlin Holocaust Memorial. The visit appears to have taken place earlier in the week, when he wrote that “Labour remains committed to learning from the world’s darkest days.”
However, there was no mention of antisemitism or the Holocaust in the campaigning video.
Use of the Memorial as a backdrop is seen as disrespectful in Germany. Berlin’s Tikvah Institute tweeted: “Why do use the #Holocaust #Memorial (Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe) as a background for your election campaign video without even mentioning the #Shoa with any single word?” James Jackson, a Berlin-based freelance journalist tweeted: “This is a massive faux pas in Germany”.
In 2017, Israeli artist and satirist Shahak Shapira created “Yolocaust”, which highlighted the chilling insensitivity of people using the Memorial for their selfies, gaining widespread international media attention.
Joe Glasman, Head of Political and Government Investigations at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “It is a matter of decency and long-established convention in Germany that you never stoop to using the Berlin Holocaust Memorial as some kind of a prop. But to incorporate the Memorial as the backdrop for a political clip that does not even mention the Holocaust is an insult. This is especially so for a political party that itself still has serious problems with antisemitism in its ranks.
“Exploiting a visit to the Holocaust Memorial like this for campaigning purposes is not just tasteless, it is manipulative and repulsive.
“Our most recent polling found that 81% of British Jews feel that antisemitism is still inadequately addressed under Sir Keir Starmer. Many feel that attempts to tackle racism against Jews in the Labour Party has been more of a public relations effort than anything of substance. This offensively crass PR video will do little to dispel that impression.”
The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.
Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.
