Chief admires Holocaust garden

A Holocaust memorial garden at the United Synagogue's Waltham Abbey cemetery in Essex was opened by Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis on Monday.

The garden was donated and dedicated by Kathrin and Joe Szlezinger. Mr Szlezinger's father and other family members were Holocaust victims and he felt the garden was important for those like him who "have no grave to visit to grieve at. When my generation is no longer here and our stories are lost forever, I hope our descendants will visit this garden, pause at certain plaques and spend a couple of minutes in quiet contemplation."

Rabbi Mirvis said it was fitting "that this memorial garden, bursting with life and growth, has been dedicated to represent the renewed vitality of the Jewish people following the horrors of the Holocaust. It is a perfect model which I would love to see replicated by Jewish communities around the world."

The garden includes plaques in memory of individual victims, as well as for whole communities that were wiped out.