A controversy over David Cameron’s supposed views on a British Government-supported programme to take sixth form pupils to Poland to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp complex has drawn attention to that programme which has been ticking over already in different forms for some nine years.

This programme is a Good Thing, even if the sight of numerous gleaming coaches parked outside the Auschwitz camp entrance itself is chilling.

A couple of years back when there was talk of a new boost to the programme I offered as HM Ambasador in Warsaw to join one of the visits to help boost the programme’s profile. I told the organisers of the programme via the FCO that the Ambassador of Israel of course would be delighted to join me; the Israeli Embassy in Poland keeps an eye on many school and other visits to Auschwitz from Israel.

I was eventually informed that it was not thought by the UK end to be helpful that the Israeli Ambassador be present as that might create ‘difficulties’ (or a word/phrase to that effect). As my posting was drawing to an end I did not pursue the matter by pressing hard to find out what exactly these ‘unhelpful difficulties’ might be, or who exactly found what ‘unhelpful/difficult’. 

Hmm.

Can it be the case that under pressure from a Muslim and/or anti-Israel political tendency the programme is somehow uneasy about linking the fact of the Holocaust to the founding of the state of Israel? Or might some sixth-formers (or their teachers) be able to face the ghastly room full of human hair taken from Auschwitz victims, but not be able to accept or cope with presence of an Israeli diplomat, even on a ceremonial one-off basis?

Back in November 2006 Professor Richard Evans gave a lecture under the auspices of the Holocaust Educational Trust, the government’s partner in this programme. The HET website cites him as saying:

"There are few Holocaust deniers left in the UK and certainly none with any credibility; however Holocaust denial is increasingly used by Islamic extremists today as a political tool to undermine the legitimacy of the state of Israel. Unfortunately it is Holocaust Survivors and their families who continue to suffer…“The Holocaust continues to raise important questions and themes surrounding freedom, responsibility and racism and that is why it is so important we educate young people about this defining episode in history.”

Precisely. So why not welcome the courteous offer of the Israeli Ambassador in Poland to meet some of the visiting students?