A Holocaust survivor will share his “harrowing wartime experience” with thousands of students at a synagogue.

Manfred Goldberg will recall his time spent in the ghettos of Riga, in Latvia and the Stutthof concentration camp, in Poland as part of Northwood United Synagogue and Northwood & Pinner Liberal Synagogue’s final Holocaust Memorial Day event on February 7.

For many years he could not bring himself to speak of his wartime experiences but, with the rise of Holocaust deniers and antisemitism, he became convinced of the need for survivors to “speak out to ensure that the younger generation knows what really happened”.

The closing ceremony will also be attended by Eric Pickles, who is special envoy for Post-Holocaust issues and works closely with a wide range of Holocaust academics, survivors and educational and social organisations in the UK.

Over the past week, more than 2,000 students and 110 teachers from 19 schools have taken part in a series of Northwood Holocaust Memorial Day Events.

The students are in years 8 to 12 from schools including Bishop’s Ramsey School, in Ruislip, Watford Girls’ Grammar, Parmiter’s School, in Watford, Royal Masonic School in Rickmansworth, Marlborough School in St Albans, Avanti School in Pinner, Nower Hill School, in Pinner, Kings Langley School, Merchant Taylors’ School in Northwood, St Helen’s School in Northwood, and Northwood College.

The programme’s theme this year is The Power of Words and aims to educate students about the atrocities committed during this period, as well as make a connection between the Holocaust and more recent genocides.