CONSERVATIVE
New Forest East

DCMS – MUSEUMS: EDUCATION & RESEARCH - 28 January 2008

DCMS – MUSEUMS: EDUCATION & RESEARCH - 28 January 2008

Dr Julian Lewis: Yesterday, I had the privilege of representing the leader of my party in Liverpool at the deeply moving Holocaust Memorial event. It struck me how difficult it is to convey a sensitive subject such as wartime atrocities to all age ranges. Will the Minister of State [Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Margaret Hodge)] join me in expressing admiration for how the Imperial War Museum and the Royal Air Force Museum, to take but two examples, manage to cover the whole spectrum, supplying information to children at one end and those undertaking the deepest academic research at the other?

[The Minister of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Margaret Hodge): It is wonderful to find unity across the House. I concur completely with everything that the hon. Gentleman said. Work is done on that subject by a range of organisations, including our museums, as well as the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, which does an enormous amount of important work, particularly in schools, to bring to life for this generation the atrocities of past generations. It is hugely important work, and we need to continue it in future generations.]