Mervyn Kersh, one of four centenarians recognised in the King’s New Year Honours list of 2026, has expressed concern about rising antisemitism in Britain and explained that his efforts to educate people about the Holocaust “do not always work.”
The Jewish D-Day veteran, awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM), on Monday for his service to Holocaust education and remembrance, told the BBC that he is disappointed in "the antisemitism that I see everywhere, hear everywhere, or read,” and said Britain risks repeating mistakes made before the Second World War.
Kersh, 101, served as a technical clerk for the Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC), arriving in Normandy three days after the start of the D-Day invasion. The London-born veteran later witnessed the liberation of the Bergen Belsen concentration camp when he was stationed there in April 1945.
Kersh also told the BBC that he felt his service in the war "was worth it", though he had earlier told the Daily Mail that Britain’s victory over the Nazis was “a waste of time” as the country has “gone downhill”.
"The benefits we got from it, the wartime camaraderie and everyone, almost everybody, mucked in [with] whatever they could do, whatever [way] they could help somebody else they did - that wasn't just in the army,” Kersh said. “You don't get that now, no."
And, in his BBC interview, he added that he "absolutely" sees comparisons between the current political climate and the period just preceding the war, saying: "The top budget should be defence.
"Defence must come first, second, third, fourth and fifth, because only if you're strong, you won't be attacked.”
Kersh, who is commended in the King’s New Year Honours list for his school talks on Holocaust remembrance and his wartime service, told the JC last year that, although it is necessary to remember the past, being vigilant to the current wave of antisemitism is arguably more important.
“A bully will only attack someone he thinks is weaker; it applies to people, and it applies to states,” he said. “You've got to be prepared to fight back - that's the only way to stop antisemitism.”
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