MEMBERS of Middlesbrough's Jewish community spoke yesterday of their painful memories of the Holocaust at a ceremony to commemorate those killed by the Nazis.

The Mayor of Middlesbrough, Councillor Pat Walker, joined adults and children at Stewart Park where a tulip tree was planted to mark National Holocaust Day.

Holocaust survivor Alfred Heimbach, who fled Hanover, in Germany aged 14, said the service was a fitting tribute to his murdered relatives.

"My grandmother and my great-aunt were deported from Hanover to Warsaw where they starved to death, as far as I can find out. My aunt and uncle were murdered. There aren't any graves to visit and as you get older you think it would fade away, but it doesn't.

"A lot of people don't believe the Holocaust happened. This was a memorial, if you like, to remind people and to say goodbye to those lost."

Mr Heimbach, 76, of Marton, was joined at the service by neighbour Gwen Lamb, whose mother escaped from Lithuania in 1939.

Miss Lamb read a Hebrew prayer and told The Northern Echo: "I thought the ceremony was incredibly poignant - particularly for me because I lost four aunts and six cousins in the Holocaust. They were dragged from their homes and shot.

"All I have got is photos of them. I hope the tree which was planted augurs well for the future and I hope Middlesbrough Council puts a plaque there to let people know what it signifies."