Lord Pickles gives talk to Jewish community
The importance of protecting Jewish and other minority groups has been emphasised by UK Special Envoy for post-Holocaust issues Lord Eric Pickles at a dinner at the Old Government House Hotel yesterday evening.
He was approached to give a speech at the dinner by members of the island’s Jewish community about a month ago. He was able to speak about a number of contemporary issues, including the present conflict in Gaza and anti-semitism.
‘I’m delighted to have been asked to come,’ he said.
‘In general the Jewish community in Guernsey seem to be happy with the way in which the government has liaised with them regarding matters to do with anti-semitism in recent months.
‘Guernsey is about as safe a place as there could possibly be for Jews, but it is not completely free from Jew hatred.’
He also updated those attending the dinner on the ongoing review of the number of people who died in Alderney during the Second World War. The review was set up last summer, with a panel of 11 internationally recognised experts appointed to assess evidence.
‘A lot of the records we are looking at are now available digitally but there are a lot to go through, the Nazis were obsessed with recording. I wouldn’t like to estimate now, but I’m confident that we will arrive at a reasonable figure of the number that died.’
Lord Pickles said a review report that had originally been due in March had since been pushed back to May due to panel members being occupied with other work arising from the ongoing war in Gaza.
