Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus says politicising Holocaust, anti-Semitism 'grotesque'

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus has labelled efforts to politicise anti-Semitism and the Holocaust as “grotesque” saying the issue did not belong to either side of politics.

He and Foreign Minister Penny Wong have travelled to Poland to attend commemorations for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

The Albanese government has increasingly faced criticism over its handing of the escalating problem, with arson attacks on a synagogue and childcare centre, in addition to anti-Semitic slurs painted on buildings and cars since December.

Speaking at the Jewish Community Centre in Krakow, Mr Dreyfus said it was an appropriate place and time to reject attempts to politicise the Holocaust or anti-Semitism.

“Combating anti-Semitism, remembering the Holocaust, does not belong to the left or the right. It does not belong to the progressive side of Australian politics, or the conservative side of Australian politics,” the descendant of Holocaust survivors told reporters.

“It has been equally grotesque to see attempts being made to politicise either commemoration of the Holocaust or combating anti-Semitism.

“We need to get politics out of this.”

Six million Jewish people were systematically murdered in the Holocaust by the Nazi German regime.

About 1.1 million people were murdered at the Auschwitz death camp before it was emancipated on January 27, 1945 by the Soviets.

Australia’s special envoy to combat anti-Semitism Jillian Segal will also attend the service, which will take place early Tuesday morning AEDT.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has pledged $6.4 million to build a national Holocaust education centre in Canberra and to upgrade a facility in Western Australia that does school workshops.

“We must never forget the atrocities of the Holocaust,” Mr Albanese said in a statement.

The coalition has made its own funding promise of $2 million to support the Holocaust Institute of WA which runs community education about the Holocaust and the October 7 attack.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton will visit the institute on Monday to attend a service for the anniversary.

Mr Albanese vowed Australia will use the full force of the law to combat “vile” anti-Semitism across the nation.

“It (anti-Semitism) stands in vile opposition to all we are as a nation and all that we have built - together - over generations,” he said.

Authorities believe “criminals for hire” are behind a spate of anti-Semitic attacks, as police investigate the possibility of overseas actors or individuals funding the targeting of Jewish communities.

Mr Dutton has slammed the government for its handling of anti-Semitism, and said the foreign minister was “the most inappropriate person” to represent Australia at the commemorations because of her stance on Israel.

Alex Ryvchin, from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said it was “entirely appropriate” Senator Wong be there as a senior cabinet minister.

“I hope by being here, she will grasp at a deeper level why Jewish nationhood and statehood, and a strong and viable Jewish state is so critical with the Jewish people,” he told Sky News from Poland.