From Silence to the Heart of British Values: The Development of Holocaust Consciousness in Contemporary Britain

This thesis traces the development of Britain’s Holocaust consciousness since the 1970s in order to understand the unfolding controversy surrounding the development of a new Holocaust memorial in the Victoria Tower Gardens, London. A comparison will be drawn with developments in Australia to reveal the unique features of the British historical context that have shaped the politics of Holocaust memory in Britain. This politicisation has resulted in the framing of Holocaust commemoration by the Conservative government in an uncritical language of ‘British values’ so as to distance British identity from a European identity