Starmer’s wife moved to tears by testimony of Holocaust survivor at Labour conference

Her mother and other family members were arrested and deported to Auschwitz on 10 February 1944. She would later learn that her mother was killed on the journey to the death camp.

“She was shot on the train. We don't know why. We don't know what really happened,” Lever said.

Raised a Catholic, the full extent of the torment suffered by her and her family was kept from her until she was older.

But even as a small child she sometimes pretended to sleep and heard her adoptive parents speak about her family’s ordeal: “There were times I was not sleeping and I could hear the conversations, and that's how so many times I heard the story being told like that, because I was never told, which I think was wrong in a way. But here you are, I can’t complain now.”

When she was aged 17, she received a letter from her mother’s sister in Amsterdam who had survived the Holocaust after “hiding under a staircase in the same street as Anne Frank” for two years.

Lever later went to visit her aunt. She said: “When I arrived in Holland with the family, I felt I was at home. It was very odd, but I felt quite comfortable.”

There, she experienced her first ever Friday-night dinner and chicken soup. It was also the first time that she, as someone raised Catholic, had eaten meat on a Friday.

“I looked at it, and I didn't want to touch it. And suddenly my aunt said to me: ‘Is there something wrong?’ I couldn't say. Remember, I was brought up as a Catholic, and I was 17, and had never yet eaten meat on a Friday … How could I eat chicken soup? … I didn't know what to say. I was too embarrassed, so I took my spoon, started to eat a bit of the soup, and it was so nice. I finished the plate.”

She came to Britain in 1963 where she became an au pair in Bristol. During her first visit to synagogue, she met her now husband Allen, who accompanied her on stage at the Labour event.

Before Lever spoke, the room was addressed by schools’ minister Georgia Gould OBE.

The MP for Queen’s Park and Maida Vale, who is Jewish, recalled with trepidation the party’s annual conference in 2018, at which several Jewish members had experienced intimidation.

“I remember the survivor, Susan Pollock, who spoke [at a HET event], saying she was really worried about the Labour Party. And I left… feeling so devastated that that was happening within my party.”

She contrasted that with the present: “Just to be here today to see this packed room, to be a Labour minister in a government led by Keir Starmer, the prime minister, who's absolutely clear that antisemitism has no place in our party. I feel so proud of that.”

Gould also praised HET’s work: “I’ve had the privilege of hearing from survivors. I think you’re completely changed by every one of those stories - by how ordinary people can commit terrible evil, but also by how ordinary people, like survivors, can find hope afterwards and tell their stories every day to build a better world and stop things like the Holocaust happening again.

“So I think it is critical for children to learn about this, and that’s why it is on the national curriculum, and why the work of the Holocaust Educational Trust is so important to keep these stories alive.”

Speaking about the event, HET Chief Executive Karen Pollock CBE said: “Annick shared her remarkable testimony at our fringe event, leaving a powerful impression on all who attended. Annick spoke about the events that led to her survival, but also the tragic loss of her mother, aunt and grandparents who were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau and murdered.

“Every year tens of thousands of young people hear from Holocaust survivors through our Outreach Programme and it is vital that the country’s leaders, decision makers and opinion formers also hear Annick’s story. Her experiences are a stark reminder of what can happen when antisemitism and hatred go unchecked, and of the responsibility people in public office have to ensure that the horrors of the past are never repeated. Our thanks to Lady Starmer and minister Georgia Gould for joining us.”