London Mayor Sadiq Khan has declared that the testimony of Holocaust survivors was more important than ever at a time of rising antisemitism.
Mr Khan's comments were made to coincide with Monday's Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration at City Hall, which was also attended by community leaders and Holocaust Educational Trust ambassadors.
Speakers included Lily Ebert, who was deported to Auschwitz at the age of14, and Sabit Jakipović, who survived the concentration camps in Bosnia in the 1990s. The Mayor recited the poem, Toys, by Abraham Sutzkever.
Mr Khan said in his statement: “London’s diversity is its greatest strength. But with a worrying rise in antisemitism at home and abroad, this year’s [HMD] theme, Standing Together, could not be more apt.
“Progress in opposing hatred and promoting equality must never be taken for granted. That’s why it’s ever more important that we hear survivors’ stories and remember the horrors of the death camps and the millions who died.
“As we mark 75 years since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, I encourage Londoners of all backgrounds to stand in solidarity with the Jewish community, remembering the six million Jewish lives that were lost during the Holocaust, as well as victims and survivors of genocides across the world. Only by standing together can we ensure it never happens again.”
Another speaker at the event was Holocaust Memorial Day Trust chief executive Olivia Marks-Woldman, who told the JC that "the murder of six million Jews, systematically, deliberately, should be commemorated by everybody.
“The fact that it happened on such an industrial scale is absolutely shocking and should shock us. We know that antisemitism didn’t disappear after the end of the Holocaust and, in fact, is on the increase, as is prejudice for people of other forms of identity. And the other, crucial reason is that genocide didn’t disappear after the Holocaust.”
Rabbi Barry Marcus and Jewish Music Institute representatives Francesca Ter-Berg and Flora Curzon also participated in the ceremony.