Contributors to a Westminster Abbey service commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz 70 years ago included Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, who read a poem written for the occasion. "Light. Knock. Road. Engine. Rail. Truck. Cold. Night. Whatever those words meant, they no longer mean."
Sunday's service - held in conjunction with the West London and Belsize Square synagogues - also featured testimony from survivors Zigi Shipper and Anita Lasker-Wallfisch.
The latter recalled how a "normal existence" in Germany was transformed in Auschwitz to "a daily panorama of people walking into gas chambers and an endless stream of dark smoke pouring out of the chimneys".
The story of the liberation was told by Baroness Julia Neuberger and the service combined Jewish and Christian prayer, with Rabbi Helen Freeman reciting Kaddish.
The music, curated by Dr Benjamin Wolf, included the first UK performance of Pogrzeb, a piece composed by an Auschwitz inmate.
The Westminster Abbey service featured testimony from survivors
