Holocaust survivor resigns from “McCarthyite” Labour Party

 

Child Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos

JVL introduction

As a young boy, Stephen Kapos was separated from his Jewish parents in war-torn Budapest. Hiding in children’s homes on false papers, he was in constant danger of being discovered by the Hungarian fascists of the Arrow Cross. Last week, he was billed to speak about his experiences as a child survivor at a Holocaust Memorial Day event.  Three days beforehand, he received an email from the London Labour Party warning him that he was likely to be expelled if he took part in the meeting. Their reason? It was organised by a proscribed group, Socialist Labour Network. Stephen decided to resign from the Labour Party in protest at its McCarthyite clampdown on free speech. He had been a member since the 1990s.

On Sunday’s ‘Not the Andrew Marr Show’ Stephen spoke to Crispin Flintoff about his feelings towards Labour and read out his resignation letter. We are pleased to share below the video of their discussion and to reproduce the text of his letter.

A 40-minute film by Helena Aksentijevic about Stephen’s life can be viewed here.

 

The last straw – Stephen Kapos’ letter of resignation from the Labour Party

 

26th January 2023

Dear London General,

Thank you for your emailed letter of the 24th of January giving me advance warning  that I am likely to be expelled from the Party if I were to speak from the panel as a Holocaust survivor at the SLN (Socialist Labour Network) Webinar on the 27th January — on Holocaust Memorial Day.

The Holocaust is the most important single example of genocide, which at its worst descended into an industrial process of mass murder of millions. As a child survivor and one of the fewer and fewer still living direct witnesses to the Holocaust I feel a compelling duty to bear witness and speak out about it at any platform that would invite me and to any audience ready to listen.

I am an activist for Palestinian human rights and an active member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in its Camden Branch. The defence of Palestinians living under a brutal occupation is very important to me, particularly as a Holocaust survivor. Palestinians live under a system of apartheid as recognised by Amnesty International and other major human rights organisations. Those are my political beliefs which I claim are protected characteristics under the Equalities Act 2010.

I am not a member of SLN nor have I been following its activities, but via the book to be discussed on the 27th I have a general understanding of SLN’s views on present-day Zionism (as a political movement ) and on some of the actions of the Zionist movement during the Holocaust and WWII.  I am in sympathy with some of those views on the grounds of my political beliefs mentioned above. I have personal experience of the Kastner project in Hungary which was driven by Zionist ideology.

My father was a victim of Kastner’s scheme and ended up stranded in the Belsen and Theresienstadt concentration camps. I was myself briefly interned in a Kastner-run detention camp in Budapest.

You make mention of Labour Party values. I learnt about Labour values during my party activism in the period when Frank Dobson was our MP and I worked in a warm and friendly atmosphere prominently on various election campaigns.

Those values were very different to that of the present leadership whose values permit intimidation, banning of discussion of some of the most vital political topics, disregard for the Party’s own rules, and for natural justice, the drastic reduction of inner party democracy, extreme factionalism, lack of support for striking workers.

I do not share these values. Please accept my immediate resignation from the Labour Party effective from tomorrow, ie from the 27th of January 2023. (Your attempt to effectively bar me from speaking about the Holocaust on Holocaust Memorial Day was the last straw for me )

In the short term the Tories are self destructing which may well bring the Labour Party into government soon. In the long term this period of the Party’s history will be remembered with shame: this was when McCarthyism was revived and imported into the Labour Party — and into the political life of the UK itself.

Yours sincerely,

Stephen Kapos

Copies to :      Sir Keir Starmer MP

The Secretary, Holborn & St. Pancras CLP

 

See here a 40-minute film by Helena Aksentijevic in which Stephen Kapos talks about his life.

 

 

 

Comments (24)

  • Allan Howard says:

    If a Holocaust survivor had resigned from the LP when Jeremy was leader (on account of believing all the lies and smears), I think we can safely assume that it would have been headline news right across the MSM…… Something akin to THIS:

    Holocaust survivor berates Labour Party over its failure to tackle anti-Semitism and calls for Jeremy Corbyn to resign

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6131873/Holocaust-survivor-berates-Labour-Party-failure-tackle-anti-Semitism.html

    But the only outlets you’ll hear about Stephen’s resignation (and what he said in his resignation letter) is on left-wing news sites of course.

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  • dave says:

    I watched the Socialist Labour Network meeting and the Not the Andrew Marr show and Stephen Kapos was just brilliant in both. He makes the apt comparison between McCarthyism and the current Labour Party.

    All the contributions in the SLN meeting were excellent and as usual Tony Greenstein took no prisoners when it comes to Zionism… https://youtu.be/kBhmxJAz2pU

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  • V Finnegan says:

    My goodness, this letter is brilliant and expounds my own reasons for resigning from the Labour Party in a much more eloquent way than I could do. Mr Kapos I admire you very much for all of the things you have experienced and your brave and admirable approach to life. Long may you live and may your God bless you.

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  • Graeme Atkinson says:

    Well done, Stephen.

    Good on’ yer for defending your personal history and political principles.

    We need more – many more – like you.

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  • The courage and honesty of Stephen Kapos can only be admired given what he went through as a child. It stands in stark contrast to the fake concerns of Starmer and his claque of Zionists who deliberately conflate support for the Palestinians and opposition to Zionism with anti-semitism.

    I have to protest about Dave’s implication when he said I took no prisoner. I shot no one!

    As Allan so rightly said if this had happened under Corbyn it would be all over the gutter press. As it is we were told repeatedly that Hodge had relatives who were killed in the Holocaust (as if that is unusual amongst Jews) and course she had her bag packed just in case Corbyn came a calling!

    We also had at the SLN Holocaust Memorial Day meeting last Friday another Jewish holocaust survivor, Suzanne Weiss, who was no less brave and forthright than Stephen.

    And as we know from the Times of Israel advert/appeal for money for holocaust survivors Israel keeps a third of its holocaust survivors in poverty – forced to choose between medicine, eating or heating having stolen the reparations that were meant for them.

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  • Mike Parr says:

    Which leaves the open question, if Liebore is now Macarthyist/Stalinist where goes Uk democracy? Liebore policies are no different to those of the Tories, it is clear that Starmer & Co, apart from words/rhetoric have no policies that will make a significant difference to the dire situation in which the UK sits. Thus does the Uk look like a one party state with two wings. Although not a member of Labour as was, I campaigned for the party in the last election. Will never happen again.
    PS: Arendt in her book “Eichmann in Jerusalem” gives a very good account of Kastner & Co. Terrible times.

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  • Alan Maddison says:

    After the WW2 psycho-social studies were undertaken to identify how a small group of fascists could create a large movement that led to a World War and the Nazi Holocaust. They identified Right Wing Authoritarianism.

    We see the patterns of this in the behaviour of Starmer’s Labour Party. A willingness to lie, break the rules and societal norms, deny the right to freedom of speech and falsely demonise in order to crush those with opposing views and eliminate them. This includes the persecution of Jewish members like Stephen with whom I agree, this should be remembered as a most shameful period in the recent history of the Labour Party.

    The establishment media will not expose this, but the Tories may. They will probably continue to use the antisemitism smear, promoted and weaponised by Starmer, n order to attack him for his alleged complicity under Jeremy Corbyn. We will witness this Tory attack especially during the next General Election.

    My admiration goes out to Stephen, and to many other targeted Jewish Labour Party victims. They have been punished for speaking the truth, for supporting equal human rights for Palestinians, and for talking of the Holocaust in a way to protect all minority groups in the future and not to justify Israel’s oppression.

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  • Jiffy Sandison says:

    I couldn’t agree more with Stephen Kapos. I too have left the Labour Party after being in it all my adult life.

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  • L says:

    Love and solidarity with Stephen. Thinking of all those he lost during the horrific holocaust, May they rest in peace.

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  • Hairyloon says:

    I can fully understand and sympathise with Mr Kapos, but I think resigning is the wrong approach: the good people of the Labour party should come together and take the party to court, while there are still some good people left to do it.
    Those who have been pushed to resign do still have the option to do this, but I think their position would be stronger if they had not resigned: I don’t believe the principles of a constructive dismissal have been established for this context.
    Perhaps it is time that they were?

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  • Judy Adams says:

    Absolutely shocking they were going to suspend Stephen from the Labour Party for speaking at this organisation. Why ?

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  • Rufus Francis says:

    The Labour Party HQ. is now beholden to the wishes of the Israeli government, therefore any members sympathetic with the plight of the Palestinians will be expelled.

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  • David Rose says:

    I am neither Jew nor do I believe in God, but this dignified letter represents many of my fervent beliefs, especially regarding the rights of the Palestinian people, my view of Apartheid, and, importantly why I left the Labour Party after a lifetime’s support over the disgraceful behaviour of the centrist ‘consensus’ which I believe to be an abject betrayal of Labour values.

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  • Edwin Darfi says:

    Bravo Sir, I salute you

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  • Margaret McIntyre says:

    It’s a sad day when the Labour Party refuses to listen to members who have far more experience of life and the troubles working people go through. Stammer is intent on silencing anyone who he does not agree with. When people who experienced the holocaust and are denied the right of free speech I hang my head in shame

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  • Margaret West says:

    Great letter from Stephen Kapos.

    The threats by the Labour Party make no sense at all.
    The Labour Party email does not say which Labour values the SLN contravene for I do not believe we were ever told? However in general terms to speak to people who you believe are in the wrong can surely only be a good thing from Starmer’s point of view !

    Its known as “Education” ..

    The Labour Party’s view is completely illogical.

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  • SB says:

    If the party Starmer now arrogantly calls “My Party” no longer stands up for free speech, workers’ rights, human rights and against oppression and fascism, what then, is the point of it?

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  • Cree Tilbury says:

    This letter is so heartening to read. I like many quite ignorant of the facts people, have been dismayed and confused by the dreadful way the Palestinians are treated and yet the definition of antisemitism seemed to say this is wrong to voice my dismay at how they are being treated and I was, apparently, being antiemetic. I was appalled at how Corbyn was treated. Thank you for enlightening me.

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  • Andrew Cook says:

    What ever happened to the ‘broad-church of ideas and people’ across the Labour movement?
    This is disgusting that someone was forced to resign from (all of) our Labour Party!

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  • John Byng says:

    A dignified and accurate letter. It is sad that Keir Starmer and his allies in Labour Party HQ are destroying the party at the same time as the Tories are destroying the NHS and other public services.

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  • Sue synodinos says:

    Absolutely agree. Well done that man. Longing for the day where there is a true Labour party to get my vote

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  • ROSHAN Hill says:

    Thank you for your compassion and integrity

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  • Edward Mander says:

    Excellent letter that, I fear, will be ignored by NuNuLabour.

    The Labour Party is no longer a home for radical political thinkers and offers no alternative to neoliberalism.

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  • John Brodie says:

    Thank you for your testimony Mr Kapos.

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Comments are now closed.