The lighting of six candles to remember the dead signalled the start of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day service.

Barking and Dagenham Post:

They were lit at Barking Town Hall before Rabbi Herschel Gluck of the Arab-Jewish Forum read a prayer in memory of the six million Jews murdered under Nazi persecution and victims of genocide worldwide.

Cllr Saima Ashraf said: “It is important that we remember the Holocaust, despite its horrific nature, so that we can strive to avoid this blot on the copybook of history ever being repeated.”

Council leader, Cllr Darren Rodwell, delivered a welcome speech before guests including Jennifer Candari-U Kangwagye and Holocaust survivor Lili Pohlmann offered their reflections.

The theme this year was Torn from Home with people urged to think about how the loss of a place to call home is part of the trauma faced by anyone experiencing genocide.

This year also marks 25 years after the genocide in Rwanda where between 500,000 and one million Tutsis were murdered during the country’s civil war.