The Holocaust Memorial Day in England was a commemoration bringing together the ever diminishing number of Holocaust survivors with the future king of England, William, whose Greek ancestor hid a Jewish family during WW2.
A picture showed all the holocaust survivors together, with members of the royal family, William and Kate, with British ministers.
People sometimes ask why we see so little of the other groups who suffered. I looked online and learned that unfortunately there is only one UK survivor of the Sinta-Roma group.
1 Hidden Jewish Survivors in London.
Some survivors kept very quiet, private, after their experiences in WW2. Anne Frank's father lived in Edgware, near where I lived, but he was not known about for decades.
A second holocaust survivor, from his family, his step-daughter, started visiting schools and wrote a book only when she became much older.
Why is a commemoration held in London? What has London got to do with the Holocaust?
1 The Kindertransport.
Many Jewish orphans and young children were brought on trains to London, to safety, after Kristallnacht, just before WW2, in the expectation that they would go back to their parents later. But after the war they had no parents nor homes to go back to.
2 Well-known Holocaust Survivors
Probably the best known is Sigmund Freud, who left Austria to live out the rest of his life in London. (His sisters were killed in the Holocaust.) You can visit the Freud Museum in London.
3 Well-known Jews from Before the Holocaust Who Contributed to Modern Britain
Ann Pavolva, whose golden statue is above the dome facing Victoria train and bus station. You can see it far above, shining in the sunlight, if you look up. Her house is a museum which can be visited.
Moses who founded Moss Bros the tailors.
Marks of Marks and Spencer.
4 Well-known Jews Of A New Generation in the UK
Alma Cogan. Helen Shapiro. Amy Winehouse.
London has a variety of cultures. We now have former Jewish delis serving Jewish style food run by a Christian Greek family in Edgware and Hatch End. Kosher festival food is sold at a Jewish supermarket in Golders Green - the shop is run by Indians.
Tesco and Marks & Spencer started in England, but are now in countries as far away as Singapore.
If you want to know about other groups, and the holocaust, you will find them mentioned on websites about the holocaust and about Anne Frank House and the Anne Frank Foundation.
Useful Websites
Holocaust Memorial Day Trust
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Holocaust_memorials_and_museums
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