RABBIS from across the country joined children to mark the 70th anniversary of a tragic event in Jewish history.

Members from Northwood and Pinner Liberal Synagogue and visitors from other synagogues around the UK gathered on Saturday to commemorate the day when Jews were forced to leave the town of Kolin, in what is now the Czech Republic.

The synagogue houses a 200-year-old Torah scroll from the town and works hard to ensure the events of a day in June 1942 are not forgotten.

Rabbi Andrew Goldstein said: “We invited rabbis from other synagogues which also have a scroll from Kolin. When all the Jews were taken to the camps the scrolls were taken to Prague and miraculously survived. We have one of these scrolls and still use it each week.

“Even though Hitler tried to wipe out the Jews from that area, we are making sure Jewish traditions still live on.”

Jews in Kolin were told to gather at a school during the Second World War and were held for three days before being marched to the train station and taken to a concentration camp.

There, the children put on a show of Brundibar, a story about childhood suffering and the eventual defeat of an evil organ grinder, which was recreated by performers aged five to 12 in Northwood at the weekend.

Rabbi Goldstein said: “There was rapturous applause for the show. The synagogue was filled with people the whole day and we had a packed schedule of seminars, a service and the opera from the children in the evening.”

The Rabbi and other members of the synagogue will travel to Kolin this week for a series of events with people in the town, which now has Jews.