Keir Starmer made a ‘harrowing’ visit to Auschwitz with his wife Victoria today.
The PM revealed he was ‘moved’ after spending time at the former Nazi concentration camp.
And he said the experience had renewed his determination to fight the ‘poison of anti-Semitism’.
More than a million people, mostly Jews but also Poles, Soviet prisoners of war and other nationalities, were murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau during the Second World War.
Writing for the Jewish Chronicle newspaper to coincide with the visit, Sir Keir said: ‘Nothing could prepare me for the sheer horror of what I have seen in this place. It is utterly harrowing.
‘The mounds of hair, the shoes, the suitcases, the names and details, everything that was so meticulously kept, except for human life.
‘As I stood by the train tracks at Birkenau, looking across that cold, vast expanse, I felt a sickness, an air of desolation, as I tried to comprehend the enormity of this barbarous, planned, industrialised murder: a million people killed here for one reason, simply because they were Jewish.’
Lady Victoria comes from a Jewish background, and Sir Keir has spoken about the importance of their children knowing about the heritage.
He said: ‘My wife was equally moved by what she saw today. It was her second visit but no less harrowing than the first time she stepped through that gate and witnessed the depravity of what happened here.’
Sir Keir continued: ‘Time and again we condemn this hatred, and we boldly say ‘never again’.
‘But where is ‘never again’ when we see the poison of anti-semitism rising around the world in aftermath of October 7?
‘Where is ‘never again’, when the pulse of fear is beating in our own Jewish community, as people are despicably targeted once again for the very same reason, because they are Jewish?’
The atrocities at Auschwitz were part of the wider Holocaust, in which six million Jewish men, women and children were killed.
The camp was liberated by soldiers of the 60th Army of the First Ukrainian Front, who opened the gates on January 27, 1945.
Karen Pollock CBE, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: ‘The Prime Minister has today seen for himself the most notorious site of the Holocaust, the former Nazi concentration and death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau.
‘Nothing can prepare you for seeing the magnitude of this place that was built for the sole purpose of extermination, where approximately a million Jewish men, women and children were systematically murdered.
‘The haunting artefacts, such as the piles of hair, shoes and belongings, bear witness to the unimaginable suffering inflicted here and we have no doubt this visit will have had a profound impact.
‘As we mark this milestone anniversary 80 years after the liberation of the camp, at a time when eyewitnesses are dwindling in number and as antisemitism continues to surge, it is more crucial than ever that this history is remembered.
‘We are grateful to the Prime Minister for leading the way in ensuring that the horrors of the past are always remembered and for sending such a powerful reminder that antisemitism and hatred must never again be allowed to flourish.’