Historian Ian Kershaw Delivers 2012 Lord Merlyn-Rees Memorial Lecture
On 23rd January 2012 more than 200 guests attended the Holocaust Educational Trust's annual Lord Merlyn-Rees Memorial Lecture at the Attlee Suite, Houses of Parliament.
The event, which was chaired by BBC Radio 4 journalist Martha Kearney, featured a keynote address by Sir Ian Kershaw, one of the world's leading experts on Hitler and Nazism. Speaking just days after the 70th anniversary of the infamous Wannsee Conference, Kershaw delivered a powerful lecture about Nazi decision making, and used the opportunity to dispel many popular myths about the Wannsee Conference being the occasion upon which the Final Solution was conceived.
The evening also featured speeches by Holocaust Educational Trust Student Ambassadors -- students who participated in the past year in the Lessons from Auschwitz Project . Three Student Ambassadors spoke movingly about their experiences visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau and how that visit inspired them to pass on the lessons they learned to their peers.
Those students were commended by Rt Hon Francis Maude MP, who remarked that they exemplified the importance of the work of the Holocaust Educational Trust.
A short film created by one Student Ambassador, Kat Mace, to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day can be viewed here. And Sir Ian Kershaw's speech can be downloaded as a podcast by clicking here.