An oak tree planted at St Christopher’s Green just a year ago to mark Holocaust Memorial Day is to be replaced already after suffering in last summer’s drought.

The Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) planted 80 oaks across the country last year for the 80th anniversary of Holocaust Memorial Day.

Haslemere received a tree after a school for Jewish children fleeing Nazi persecution was established at Stoatley Rough at the top of Farnham Lane in 1934.

The oak was planted on January 27, 2022, by the then-town mayor Simon Dear, Rabbi Alex Goldberg, Reverend Justin Manley-Cooper and a representative of the AJR.

The event was arranged by the AJR as part of its ‘80 Trees for 80 Years’ anniversary project.

But Waverley Borough Council has now provided a replacement oak after the fast demise of the original.

The tree at St Christopher’s Green is meant to act as a platform for telling the story of Britain’s Jewish refugees and celebrating their contribution to British life.

Holocaust Memorial Day is an annual day of remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust, the systematic extermination of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators during the Second World War.

Millions of other minority groups, including Romani people, homosexuals, people with disabilities, and political dissidents, were also targeted for persecution and murder.

Holocaust Memorial Day is observed on January 27 to commemorate the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 1945.

The day is an opportunity for people around the world to remember the victims of the Holocaust and to learn about the dangers of hatred and intolerance. It is also a time to reflect on how to prevent such atrocities from happening in the future.