The Mayor of Ealing, Councillor Hitesh Tailor, will be leading the borough in marking Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) 2024 at two public events.

In Walpole Park at 9.15am until 9.45am there will be a rededication of the memorial stone laid to commemorate the rededication the six Holocaust Memorial trees following their relocation from Uxbridge Road.

This event will be attended by the Mayor of Ealing, deputy leader of Ealing Council Councillor Deirdre Costigan, Deputy Lieutenant, Richard Kornicki, past mayor Councillor Munir Ahmed, David Austin, HMD trustee and Rabbi Vogel of Ealing Synagogue.

The second event will take place at The Atrium, Perceval House, 14-16 Uxbridge Road, Ealing W5 2HL from 10:45am with an 11am start.

The Mayor will be joined by Deputy Lieutenant, Richard Kornicki, Councillor Deirdre Costigan, Rabbi Vogel, the Reverend Dean Ayres, Reverend Joseph Fernandes, the rector of Acton, representatives of the Metropolitan Police and London Fire Brigade, and students from Elthorne Park High School, Brentside High School, Ellen Wilkinson High School, Northolt High School and Drayton Manor High School.

Jeanette Marx will be the guest speaker, and she will tell her mother's holocaust story. Stones will be laid to commemorate and pay respect to those who lost their lives.

Councillor Peter Mason, leader of Ealing Council, said: "Freedom is a universal principle. It is a basic expectation and condition for a free and equal society.   

"In every incidence of genocide however, those who are persecuted have had their freedom restricted and removed. The freedoms of others around them to prevent challenge to these actions are also restricted, demonstrating how fragile freedom is.

"But there are those who choose to risk their own freedom to help others, to stand up to persecution and to preserve others' freedom.

"Today many people take freedoms for granted, but Holocaust Memorial Day provides an opportunity to reflect on how these freedoms need to be valued, and on how many people around the world face restrictions to their freedoms to live, worship, work and love freely."

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