The Megillah has been read in the only surviving synagogue in Ozwiecim, the Polish town next to Auschwitz concentration camp, for the first time in at least 70 years.

Jewish historian Jerry Gotel read the story of Esther in the Chevra Lomdei Mishnayot synagogue, which had been destroyed by the Nazis and turned into a warehouse during the Soviet era, but which has now been recovered and restored as close as possible to the original.

Mr Gotel led a group of more than 20 people from London on a cultural tour organised by the London Jewish Cultural Centre. Before the war, half the town’s population was Jewish.