A United Synagogue/Yad Vashem educational and memorial programme marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz was launched at St John's Wood Synagogue before an audience of 250.
Participants in "70 Days for 70 Years" will receive a book of essays by leading historians and scholars and information about a Holocaust victim in whose memory they will learn. The idea is to read an essay a day.
"Tonight we began something remarkable," said project director Rabbi Andrew Shaw.
"We cannot bring the dead back to life but we can make their memory live on in us. From today we hope to remember millions. Each of us can ensure that their name is a part of the Jewish future."
Guests also heard from survivor Lily Ebert, who said: "I promised myself that if I survived, I would tell the world what happened there [Birkenau]. I kept my promise."
I promised that if I survived, I would tell the world what happened
By contrast, "the best experience of my life was in 1948, when I was there at the establishment of the state of Israel".
Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, St John's Wood senior minister Dayan Ivan Binstock and United Synagogue president Stephen Pack also spoke at the launch.
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