Jeremy Corbyn visits concentration camp and Holocaust memorial museum

The Labour leader will travel to Terezín in the Czech Republic to visit the former camp

Czech soldiers walk past a memorial cemetery at the former Terezin concentration camp (AFP/Getty Images)

Jeremy Corbyn will visit a Holocaust memorial and museum at a former concentration camp on Saturday during a visit to the Czech Republic.

The Labour leader will be in Prague in the morning addressing European centre-left leaders, and will afterwards make the journey to Terezín, around an hour’s drive away.

The camp, a former fortress, was adapted by the Nazis into a Jewish ghetto in 1941, later becoming a concentration camp. Thousands of Jews died in inhumane conditions there or were transported to death camps.

Ahead of the visit, Mr Corbyn said the world should never forget the genocide that occurred at the camp and the dangers that “far-right politics, antisemitism and racist scapegoating pose to society”.

The Labour leader has previously faced criticism in a report by MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee, who said he had not shown enough leadership in tackling allegations of antisemitism in the party.

“The Terezin memorial is a vital reminder of the genocidal crimes carried out during the Second World War and the dangers that far-right politics, antisemitism and racist scapegoating pose to society,” he told The Independent ahead of the visit.

“The stories of the families incarcerated here are deeply moving and sobering. Many died of starvation and malnutrition, the cruelty and inhumanity of their treatment was unspeakable.

“We must never forget the horrific crimes perpetrated by the racist, far-right Nazi regime in Europe and the justice of the struggle waged by the Allied forces and the anti-fascist resistance against it.

“It is an obligation for all of us to work together to build a world of respect, tolerance and peace.”

Mr Corbyn will visit the museum after giving a speech to Europe’s centre-left leaders in the country’s capital.

He will tell the continent’s top socialists that they must reject the establishment – or watch the populist far-right win across the continent.