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Victoria Starmer had an emotional return visit Auschwitz, together with his wife the Prime Minister during their visit to Poland.
Lady Starmerwhose Jewish father fled Poland in the 1920s to escape the rise of Nazism in neighboring Germany, was seen walking to the field of the former concentration camp hand in hand with Sir Keir.
The Prime Minister said that it was his first trip to Auschwitz, but that it was his wife’s second. “But [it was] no less harrowing than when she first walked through that gate and witnessed the depravity of what happened here,” he added.
In a statement after the visit, Sir Keir pledged to “combat the poison of anti-Semitism” and pointed to a rise in such hate crimes following the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas in Israel.
“We again condemn this hatred and boldly say ‘never again,'” he said. “But where ever again, when we see the poison of anti-Semitism rising around the world after October 7?
“Where never again, when the pulse of fear beats in our own Jewish community, because people are once again the target of contempt for the same reason, because they are Jewish.
“Nothing could have prepared me for the sheer horror of what I saw in this place. It is extremely distressing. Piles of hair, shoes, suitcases, names and details, everything so carefully guarded, except human life.”
Sir Keir said the experience “will stay with me for the rest of my life”.
“So will my determination to defend that truth, to fight the poison of anti-Semitism and hatred in all its forms, and to do all I can to make ‘never again’ mean what it says, and what it really must mean: never again,” he added.
Lady Starmer still has members of her extended family living in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, and Sir Keir has spoken of the effect the attacks there have had on his family.
Her father Bernard’s family fled the central Polish village of Kolo, where many of the residents were Jewish, to Britain in the 1920s. He was born in Hackney, East London, in 1929.
His wife Barbara later converted to Judaism. Sir Keir and Mrs Starmer brought up their children in their grandfather’s faith.
Sir Keir called the Shabbat dinners they have every Friday night “the touchstone of the week” for the family, although he admitted it was difficult to maintain the tradition in Downing Street.
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust said the charity was “grateful to the Prime Minister for leading the way in ensuring the horrors of the past are always remembered”.
“Nothing can prepare you to see the enormity of this place that was built solely for the purpose of extermination, where approximately one million Jewish men, women and children were systematically murdered,” she said.
“The cursed artefacts, such as piles of hair, shoes and belongings, bear witness to the unimaginable suffering inflicted here and we have no doubt that this visit will have a profound impact.
“As we mark this milestone 80 years after the liberation of the camps, at a time when the number of eyewitnesses is dwindling and anti-Semitism continues to rise, it is more important than ever that this history be remembered.”
The visit came as the prime minister traveled to Poland to meet with the country’s political leaders, following a trip to Ukraine where he met with Volodymyr Zelensky.
He is expected to discuss with his counterpart Donald Tusk a new agreement between the UK and Poland, which will support both countries to work together to protect Europe from Russian aggression and work together to fight smuggling gangs.
After a visit to Kiev, the Prime Minister confirmed that the UK would discuss the deployment of peacekeeping troops to Ukraine with its allies, pledging that Britain would “play our part” in guaranteeing the country’s security after the ceasefire with Russia.