Students who gave up their time to volunteer at a commemoration ceremony to remember victims of the Holocaust say it was a “great honour” to be part of the event.

Eden Girls’ School in Blackhorse Lane in Walthamstow sent a group of Year 10 students to the Government’s memorial service in Westminster on Thursday January 25 ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day.

January 27 marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, the largest Nazi death camp.

Ceremonies were held across the UK to remember the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust and those killed in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur.

Political figures including Jeremy Corbyn and Sadiq Khan attended the service on Thursday alongside survivors of genocides and their families.

Head Girl Badriyah Islam, who was among those who volunteered, said: “It was a great honour being part of such an important event. We got to meet a lot of people and heard some very moving speeches by some very inspirational people.”

Actors Derek Jacobi CBE, Maureen Lipman CBE and Charles Dance OBE gave readings at the ceremony.

Shahina Ahmad, Principal of Eden Girls’ School, said the experience highlighted for students “the need to learn from the past and empathise with others, to ensure a better future.”

“Our pupils were very fortunate to have the opportunity to get involved in this national commemoration of a key event in global history,” she said.

She added: “The girls were inspired by meeting survivors such as Renie Inow, to whom they will be writing postcards as part of the Holocaust Memorial Day postcard project.

“Hearing the readings and accounts at the memorial service enabled our students to reflect on the terrible consequences of prejudice and discrimination, and to pay tribute to the strength and humanity of those who survived.”