Cultural events are taking place this week in memory of the six million Jews murdered during the Nazi Holocaust in the Second World War.
Other genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur are also being remembered in a programme by Tower Hamlets Council to mark Sunday’s national Holocaust Memorial Day.
“It’s important to come together to remember the millions who lost their lives during the Holocaust,” Mayor John Biggs said.
“Our annual Holocaust Memorial Day reminds us how the lessons of the past can inform our lives today to ensure we work together to create a safer future.”
Holocaust Memorial events in partnership with Jewish Care, Jewish East End Celebration Society, UK Jewish Film and Rich Mix arts centre begin on Thursday with a film archive workshop exploring Holocaust narratives from films and archival footage, screened at Tower Hamlets History Library in Bancroft Road, Mile End, at 6.30pm.
It includes a display of historical images showing the East End’s anti-fascism resistance, like the 1936 ‘Battle of Cable Street’ when Mosley’s fascist blackshirts were prevented from marching through a predominantly-Jewish Whitechapel.
Events continue on Sunday with a Jewish ‘heritage walk’ with historian Clive Bettington through Whitechapel, Spitalfields and Shadwell, starting 12noon from Aldgate Underground station.
This is followed by an interfaith service at East London Central Synagogue in Nelson Street, Stepney, when speakers respond to what happens when families and communities are driven out of their homes through persecution or genocide.
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