It takes a lot to silence the House of Commons. However, 80 years ago, the Islington South MP, William Cluse, did exactly that. On 17 December 1942, MPs responded to the British government’s first public acknowledgement of the Holocaust with a spontaneous moment of silence – a first for the chamber. Anthony Eden, the then foreign secretary, read a declaration based on reports from the Polish government-in-exile, detailing the atrocities taking place in Nazi-occupied Europe. Eden reported that: “From all the occupied countries Jews are being transported, in conditions of appalling horror and brutality, to Eastern Europe … None of...