‘Holocaust memory needs people who are willing to safeguard it’

Holocaust survivor Lydia Tischler MBE, 97, who survived Theresienstadt and Auschwitz before coming to the UK as one of the “Windermere Boys”, was given a standing ovation.

Before lighting one of the six candles, she addressed the children’s choir, made up of over 150 pupils from several Jewish schools, telling them: “I was 10 years old, I was about your age when Hitler, without an invitation, invaded my country and started making the lives of Jews very miserable, in stages, slowly ending up in one concentration camp after another.”

Holocaust survivor Lydia Tischler MBE, addresses the audience (Photo: Meron Persey Photography)[Missing Credit]

The music, which included songs in both Hebrew and Yiddish, was particularly poignant, led by celebrated chazans Steven Leas, David Rome and Jonny Turgel, the grandson of acclaimed Holocaust educator Gena Turgel, who survived Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen.

The Chief Rabbi paid tribute to the Holocaust survivors, describing them as examples of “true Jewish heroism”, emphasising that preserving their memory “must extend beyond anniversaries”.

On behalf of younger generations, several leaders of youth movements pledged to continue to share the testimonies of Holocaust survivors, whose numbers are becoming fewer and fewer.

Union of Jewish Students president Louis Danker said: “Our generation must once again stand against hatred, against silence, and against indifference… with our identity, our voice, and our Jewish pride.”

UJS President Louis Danker (Meron Persey Photography)[Missing Credit]

Other speakers included President of the Board of Deputies Phil Rosenberg, who, referring to the recent antisemitic attacks on Manchester’s Heaton Park Synagogue and on the Hatzola ambulances, said the behaviour of Kanye West, who has previously described himself as a Nazi, was “a direct affront to the memory of the millions who perished”.

Henry Grunwald OBE KC, who has been compering the ceremony for well over 30 years, said coming together as a community to mark Yom HaShoah was an opportunity to “pause, reflect and remember” the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, including one and a half million children.

He paid tribute to the politicians across all parties, dignitaries and veterans who were in attendance, including a group of Chelsea Pensioners.

Yom HaShoah 2026 at Victoria Tower Gardens (Photo: Meron Persey Photography)[Missing Credit]

Speaking after the event, chair of Yom HaShoah UK Neil Martin CBE, said: “This year’s commemoration was about the next generation, and showing our survivors that the responsibility of remembrance is being carried forward with clarity, passion and determination.

“To hear the extraordinary Dr Lydia Tischler, aged 97, share her testimony directly with over 150 primary school children was a deeply emotional moment – a true passing of the torch. Tonight showed, with absolute clarity, that the future of remembrance is in safe hands.”

He added that the ceremony was only made possible “thanks to the dedication of teams who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes, particularly from JLGB, CST and the Police”.