Polish-born survivor Bob Obuchowski will tell those gathered for Redbridge’s memorial service of his hopes for a world free of racism and anti-Semitism.

Mr Obuchowski, 84, of Leigh Avenue, Redbridge, will be one of the speakers in the Holocaust Memorial Garden in Valentines Park, Ilford, on Monday and will tell how he survived the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camps and two death marches.

He said: “I’m hoping it will never occur like this again. But there’s still a lot of racialism and anti-Semitism. I hope one day the world will cure itself and something will happen that will stop it all.”

The great-grandfather was forced to march from between the Babice and Buchenwald concentration camps in minus-30 degree temperatures.

“We never had any underwear or socks,” he said. “It was about two or three weeks before we got there and we were given hardly any food. Not many survived that.”

He was liberated by the Russians in May 1945 and came to England.

He and his wife of 61 years Marie, a fellow survivor, have two children, five grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Mr Obuchowski is also a frequent speaker at schools.

He said: “I haven’t done for the past three or four years but if they asked, I’d always go, I don’t refuse.”