Holocaust survivors in London today marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen Nazi death camp.
Britain's chief rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks, and army chief Sir Mike Jackson were among those speaking at the Hyde Park Holocaust Memorial in central London at the event, organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust.
Jewish ex-servicemen are also to carry the National Standard flag to represent Anglo-Jewry. As many
Photo dated 15/04/1945 of a mass grave discovered by allied troops at Belsen-Bergen concentration camp
as 70,000 people, including diarist Anne Frank, died at the camp, which was liberated by the British in 1945.
Rudi Oppenheimer, who was taken there when he was 12, also spoke at ceremony. He was sent to the camp with his parents, who died there, and his brother and sister, who also survived.
The 73-year-old from Primrose Hill, North London, now gives talks in schools about his experiences. During his speech he told the story of how, one day at the camp, his mother had recognised a friend from their days living in Amsterdam.
She asked a woman where the family's best friends were and was told that they had been gassed at Auschwitz.
"At the time, I was holding my mum's hand and suddenly felt the pressure of her fingers was almost breaking my bones," he said.
Belsen was initially a prisoner of war camp but then became an exchange camp for Jews who the Nazis intended to swap with the Allies for Germans in countries including Britain and the United States.
However, this plan never came to fruition on a large scale. Despite the thousands who died at the camp, there were no gas chambers at Bergen-Belsen, but disease was rife amid massive over-crowding.