London Mayor Sadiq Khan to attend Yom HaShoah event on Sunday

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan will join hundreds in London this Sunday to mark Yom HaShoah, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The occasion marks 75 years since the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and will feature Game of Thrones actress Laura Pradelska, who has been recalling the stories of each of her four grandparents, who all survived the Holocaust.

The date also marks the liberation of Bergen-Belsen and former camp inmate Gena Turgel, who lives in north London, will recall her story, including how Norman Turgel – an English soldier who helped liberate the camp – later became her husband.

The free event will be staged at the National Holocaust Memorial Gardens in Hyde Park, with this year’s Yom HaShoah theme that of ‘defiance.’ The ceremony will include songs, readings and performances from combined male voice choirs and well as the choirs of Jewish primary schools.

Those attending will hear the unknown story of AJEX executive director and Yom HaShoah UK vice-president Jacques Weisser, who was smuggled out of Belgium as a child by his mother before she was taken to Auschwitz and killed.

Following his election in 2016, the London Mayor chose Yom Hashoah for his first official event, and has since hosted Holocaust Memorial Day events at City Hall.

He tweeted on Thursday, that: “Today our thoughts are with the Jewish communities observing #YomHaShoah, as we remember the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust. As Mayor I will always take a zero-tolerance approach to anti-semitism wherever it can be found.