On 31 July 2020, almost 80 years after the Jewish deportation to Mauritius, the British government officially acknowledged for the first time the detainees’ suffering in an official letter. Written by Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon,  Minister of State for South Asia and the Commonwealth and the Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict, the letter was delivered to Mr. Owen Griffiths, chairman of the Beau Bassin Jewish Detainees Memorial & Information Centre, ahead of the 75th commemorative ceremony marking the liberation of the detainees from Mauritius. This unprecedented letter recognized the suffering endured by European Jews who fled persecution in Nazi-occupied Europe and paid tribute to the Beau Bassin Jewish Detainees Memorial & Information Centre’s work to commemorate the history of the Jewish deportation to Mauritius. The letter also ratified the British government’s commitment to honouring the victims of Nazi persecution, and to advance and promote Holocaust education, research and remembrance around the world and confirmed the establishment of a new Holocaust memorial and education centre in London.

Click here to read the Letter from Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon to Mr Owen Griffiths.