Over 200 people, including the Mayor, Deputy Lord Lieutenant, Leader of the Council, MPs Sarah Olney MP, many Councillors and Church leaders, as well as the President of the United Synagogue, crammed into Richmond Synagogue for this annual civic event.
Miriam Freedman, originally from Bratislava in Slovakia, told how she and her family hid in a hole in the basement of her apartment block, helped by an anti – Nazi caretaker and how she, but not all her family, survived. Ivor Perl, born in Mako in Hungary, told how he was taken to Auschwitz aged 12, said he was 16 when Dr Mengele asked him his age and survived.
After going to Kaufering and Dachau camps, he eventually came to Ascot, to a yeshiva for Orthodox boys. Only he and one brother survived of a family of 11. Young people who went on the Synagogue trip to Poland talked about the impact it made on them, Tali Smus, Jewish student dedicated advocate for Jewish pride and Israel spoke of her experience of anti-semitism at University, Steve Levi of Oi Va Voi and friends provided Holocaust Music, Holocaust poetry was recited and Rabbi Golker and the Mayor spoke.
26 January 2026