Newham Council marked Holocaust Memorial Day with a special on-line service attended by Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz, and 140 guests.
Guest speakers at the service included Ann and Bob Kirk BEM, who escaped Nazi Germany and fled to England at 10, and 13 years old. They were both part of the Kindertransport - a British rescue effort that brought 9,354 Jewish children out of Nazi occupied areas nine months before the outbreak of the Second World War.
Both Ann and Bob later discovered their families had not survived the holocaust, with Ann’s family murdered at Auschwitz and Bob’s mother and father perishing in a concentration camp near Riga.
The theme of this year's Holocaust Memorial Day is, “Be the light in the darkness”, and Bob reminded the audience the battle against hate and intolerance goes on. He said; “It is still happening. We had Darfur. We had Cambodia. We had Srebrenica. We have the Uighurs. Intolerance is still there and it's not going away anytime soon. It's all our jobs to combat it."
It was a sentiment echoed by Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz who said the fight against lies, persecution of minorities and an "ugly" resurgence of antisemitism still needed to be fought and urged the audience to pledge to challenge hate speech and false information, particularly on the internet and social media, with the truth.
She said; "Cherish it, protect it and most of all, fight for it."
The service also included a recital from pupils Dersingham Primary School, who read an especially composed poem, Standing Together Making a Change, and streamed performances from Newham Music.