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Anthony Albanese has pledged $6.4 million to build a national Holocaust education centre in Canberra and upgrade a facility in Western Australia that does school workshops.
The announcement came as the world marks the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
“We must never forget the atrocities of the Holocaust,” Albanese said in a statement.
“The centre will serve to educate our young Australians about the horrors of the Holocaust and teach them from an early age that such prejudice, hatred and violence has no place here. Not now, not ever.”
The government anticipates 165,000 schoolchildren a year will visit the new centre, to be built in partnership with the ACT’s Jewish community.
The government is matching the Opposition’s $2 million pledge to support the Holocaust Institute of WA, which runs community education about the Holocaust and the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas in 2023.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton is expected to visit the institute on Monday to attend a service for the anniversary.
Albanese has also vowed Australia will use the full force of the law to combat “vile” antisemitism across the nation.
“It (antisemitism) stands in vile opposition to all we are as a nation and all that we have built — together — over generations,” he said.
Six million Jewish people were systematically murdered in the Holocaust by the Nazi German regime.
A string of recent antisemitic attacks in Australia has prompted Jewish community protests. Source: AAP / Steven Saphore
In Australia, in attacks that have escalated since December.
A Sydney childcare centre near a synagogue when it was targeted in an arson and graffiti attack.
Authorities believe , as police investigate the possibility of overseas actors or individuals funding the targeting of Jewish communities.
“Jewish Australians are integral to the story of Australia, and to the even greater future within our reach,” the prime minister said.
“Australia proudly welcomed so many survivors of the horrors of the Holocaust, offering refuge and hope. We embraced the Jewish community then, and we embrace you now.”
Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus have travelled to Poland to attend a service marking the liberation of Auschwitz, which will take place early on Tuesday morning (Australian time). King Charles will also attend the ceremony.
About 1.1 million people were murdered in the concentration camp before it was emancipated on 27 January 1945.
