Yom HaShoah – 17 Aprlil 2023 @ 7pm

Service of Commemoration & Yizkor Canle lighting

This year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day Service of Commemoration will take place on 17 April 2023 at 6.45 for 7pm. Cllr Jeremy Amache, Mayor of Wandsworth will open the evening and introduce our speaker for the night, Jacqueline Luck. Jacqueline Luck will tell the story of her grandmother Lela Black.
The Wimbledon Synagogue Choir will sing during the ceremony.

Please RSVP to office@wimshul.org.

The Story of Lela Black 1918-2008  

Lela Black née Amiel was born in 1918 in Salonica. When the Germans occupied Greece in 1943, Lela went into hiding. A year later, after being denounced and incarcerated at the Haidari military camp, she was transported to Auschwitz in cattle trucks, with thousands of other Greek Jews.  

On arrival at Auschwitz, a selection process separated Lela from her daughter and husband; this was the last time she saw them. Somehow, Lela survived Auschwitz, enduring freezing temperatures, disease and hunger.  She was finally liberated by the Russians on 5th May 1945 and returned to Greece, only to find that her entire family from Salonica had been deported in 1943 and murdered in Auschwitz. Eventually, Lela came to London to stay with her only living relatives – an aunt, uncle and two cousins. 

Lela’s story is told by her granddaughter, Jacqueline Luck, a member of our Synagogue.  She includes video footage of Lela’s testimonies, as well as a selection of treasured family photos.