Every year, members of Finchley Reform Synagogue generously give up their time to organise and host a Holocaust Memorial Day event, to commemorate the victims of that horrendous time and other genocides, to do their part in the hope that it will never be repeated.

Sadly, such a message has never been more needed and these commemorations are becoming an increasingly rare opportunity. I am immensely proud of the way our Year 9 students conducted themselves, listening carefully to their respective survivor speakers, to a testimony that I hope will remain in their memories for many years to come.

A few of our students from Year 9 Ludgate wrote their thoughts on the day, which you can read below:

The talk with the survivor was very interesting and we can all say we learned a lot. We learnt what Jewish children went through at the time of the holocaust and more specifically, what Elsa Shamash, the survivor, went through. We found out she had to go to a Jewish only school, wear a yellow star, how her father had to leave in case the gestapo came looking for him and how she escaped Germany on the Kindertransport during this horrible time. We also enjoyed the activity with the jar and making up our own characters. Overall the trip was great and would definitely go again. Zahra A, Alex B, Holly D and Mia F