A Holocaust survivor has addressed a cabinet meeting in Downing Street for the first time in history.
Mala Tribich MBE urged members of Sir Keir Starmer’s government to do “what needs to be done” to tackle antisemitism in the UK when she spoke to ministers on Tuesday morning.
Introducing Tribich, who was sat next to the prime minister and members of his cabinet on Holocaust Memorial Day, Sir Keir Starmer described the historic occasion as “incredible”.
“I know you've shared your story over many decades with thousands and thousands of people. And all of us, myself included, are humbled by your courage and inspired by your story,” he said.
Starmer continued: “I think it's really important that we all are loud and clear that we have heard and we act on yours and all the stories and experiences of Holocaust survivors.
“It is our duty not just to listen but also to act and deal with anybody who tries to deny or distort what happened in the Holocaust.”
The prime minister also expressed his pleasure that Parliament had last week passed the Holocaust Memorial Act to enable the construction of a memorial and learning centre in Victoria Tower Gardens, next to the parliamentary estate.
“I know you and your late brother campaigned so much for that to happen. So I'm really pleased to be able to welcome you the week after the Act was passed. And I know that's something you feel very very strongly about,” he said.
Born in Piotrkow Trybunalski in Poland in 1930, Tribich shared her harrowing experiences under Nazi rule.
She described the terror of having her mother and sister murdered by the Nazis “in the most horrific way – shot into open pits in the Rakov forest.”
Members of Sir Keir Starmer’s top team were visibly moved as Tribich described her suffering in the concentration camps.
“We were stripped naked, shaved, put through freezing cold showers and given the prisoner garb. When we looked at each other, we could barely recognise who we were. We were stripped not only of our freedom, but of our identities, our dignity, our humanity. It was as if they had taken away our very souls.
“When I arrived in Bergen-Belsen, the first thing that hit you was the smog. The stench.
“It was a hell on earth. Those still alive shuffled about like skeletons and just collapsed where they stood. Disease was everywhere and I became very ill with typhus. I could hardly move.”
She described her elation at being liberated by the British Army and, a year after the liberation, discovering that her brother, the late Olympian Sir Ben Helfgot, had survived and the two would later reunite in England.
Tribich also said that her brother would have been delighted that Parliament passed the Holocaust Memorial Act.
“One of Ben’s greatest wishes was to see a Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre built beside Parliament – a permanent place where survivor testimony would be preserved, and where future generations could understand where antisemitism and hatred could lead if left unchallenged. He did not live to see the memorial, but he would have been proud to know that Parliament has now passed the Holocaust Memorial Bill and that work will soon begin,” she said.
Tribich voiced shock at the antisemitism on display in Britain and across the globe at present.
“Having endured the Holocaust, we survivors never imagined we would witness antisemitism at the levels we see today,” she said.
“What we have seen in Manchester on Yom Kippur, and in Sydney on Chanukah, has shaken me to my core. How, 81 years after the Holocaust, can Jewish people once again be targeted in this way? Remembering the past is no longer enough,” Tribich added.
Sir Keir Starmer and his cabinet were then implored to “do what needs to be done to tackle this hatred”.
Concluding her remarks, she expressed hope, adding that without such a feeling she would not have survived Bergen-Belsen.
She was encouraged by the “the thousands of young people who have heard my testimony” and voiced her hope that the next generation would hear survivors’ stories.
She was given a standing ovation by all members of the cabinet as she finished speaking.
Commenting on the historic occasion, Tribich was praised by Holocaust Educational Trust Chief Executive Karen Pollock CBE: “She is one of a dwindling number of Holocaust survivors who are still able to share their most painful memories with the world. Mala, and survivors like her, share their stories in the hope that the next generation will always know what happened during the darkest days in our shared memory, acting as a memorial to the six million Jewish men, women and children who were murdered by the Nazis.”
Pollock went on to say that meeting the prime minister and the cabinet was “a poignant reminder of the responsibility to confront anti-Jewish hatred and ensure that the legacies of Holocaust survivors endure”.
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