Rabbi Mendy and two students who visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp Memorial and Museum, alongside Cllrs O’Halloran, Chapman, Safi-Ngongo and Jackson

HOLOCAUST Memorial Day is an opportunity to “reflect on past hardships” to “bring about positive futures”, a rabbi said during a commemoration event in Islington on Tuesday.

Pupils from St Mary’s Primary School, Highbury Fields School, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School, and Arts & Media School Islington joined councillors at the Town Hall this week to mark the annual event that remembers the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust.

Rabbi Mendy Korer, from Chabad Lubavitch Islington, said it was an opportunity to “reflect on past hardships in order to bring about positive futures, recognising we all have a shared responsibility in making our communities respectful and kind”.

The students also shared their reflections from a recent trip to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, while Islington’s equalities chief Cllr Sheila Chapman said the day was a reminder that “we must never look away from the consequences of prejudice and discrimination.”

She added: “Islington always has been, and always will be, a place where we stand up against hatred and inequality, and that’s why we’re so proud to be a Borough of Sanctuary.

“Today’s event showed the strength of our shared commitment to championing diversity and protecting the freedoms we all rely on.”