Redbridge marked Holocaust Memorial Day this morning with a service including rabbis, schoolchildren and councillors.

The ceremony, held in the Holocaust Memorial Garden in Valentines Park, Ilford, was based around the theme of journeys.

Mayor of Redbridge, Cllr Felicity Banks, opened the ceremony at 11am and stressed we must not forget history.

She said: “If we learn these lessons then the suffering of the victims in the Holocaust will not be in vain.”

Students from Redbridge schools told the story of a boy from Berlin whose journey was characterised by persecution from the Nazis.

Throughout the Second World War he moved from Germany to Britain, to Amsterdam and then back to Germany where he and his family were imprisoned in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

After liberation by the Allied Forces, he settled in England.

Rabbi Aryeh Sufrin, who spoke during the ceremony, said: “This is the first year we haven’t had a holocaust survivor talking.

“This is the reality now. We must pass on what we hear.”

For more on Holocaust Memorial Day, follow www.ilfordrecorder.co.uk and get this Thursday’s paper.