Free admission to the proposed UK Holocaust Memorial

Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick has announced that the government will provide free entry, in perpetuity, to everyone visiting the proposed new Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre.

Giving universal free access to the memorial puts the UK on the same footing as the most important monuments and museums and will reassure Holocaust survivors their testimony will be freely available to all when they are no longer able to tell the story themselves, forever.

Planned to be built next to Parliament in Victoria Tower Gardens, the Memorial will be the focal point for national remembrance of the six million Jewish men, women and children murdered in the Holocaust and all other victims of Nazi persecution. The learning centre will be a world-class facility, giving visitors powerful and engaging experiences to learn about the Holocaust and subsequent genocides through a variety of mediums including historic photographs, film footage and audio recordings.

Jenrick said: “Free entry, in perpetuity, to the proposed UK Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre will mean that there are no barriers to people commemorating and learning about the evils of the Holocaust and is keeping with our national tradition of free entry to monuments and museums of great national significance. As first-hand testimony from survivors becomes rarer and rarer, it is incumbent on all of us to be their witnesses. The Memorial will serve as a continual reminder to us all of why we need to make a stand against antisemitism, racism and hatred, whenever and wherever we find it – something that this government will always do.”

The government has announced that it will contribute up to £75 million towards construction costs, to be supplemented by £25 million from charitable donations.