More than 900 pupils in Kingston attended events marking Holocaust Memorial Day at two local synagogues over 22-30 January.

The educational workshops were organised by Kingston Liberal Synagogue (KLS) and Kingston, Surbiton and District Synagogue, with funding by the Royal Borough of Kingston Community Resilience Fund. 

They marked the 18th year of an annual remembrance project run together by the two synagogues with the purpose of sharing knowledge about the Holocaust. 

Holocaust Memorial Day this year fell on Saturday 27 January 2024.

It commemorates the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, alongside the millions of other people persecuted by the Nazis.

The national theme for 2024 was "The Fragility of Freedom".

KLS said that each workshop hosted around a hundred 13-15-year-old students from the borough.

The seven key speakers included Holocaust survivors, or adult descendants. They each gave a talk after which the students were able to ask questions.

This was followed by a film about people in Nazi occupied countries, who risked their own lives to hide Jews during the Holocaust.

At the end of the workshops, the students reflected on what they had learnt and wrote postcards to the survivors. These workshops are not just a history lesson: students considered what freedoms they value and the importance of respecting differences of race, religion, etc.

KLS said that almost all the pupils attending were non-Jewish and for many, the workshops were their first experiences inside a synagogue.