The Foreign Office has hosted a special event with the Israeli embassy ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day, in which three righteous gentiles were honoured.

Israeli Ambassador Daniel Taub and Minister for the Middle East Tobias Ellwood, who led the ceremony, also told more than 100 guests that Holocaust education was more vital now than ever.

The ambassador referred to the attack on a kosher supermarket in Paris in his speech, saying: "As we near the point when there will no longer be members of the generation that endured the horrors of the Holocaust left among us, we have a duty to redouble our efforts to listen to their stories, so that we too become witnesses.

“At a time when tragically antisemitism is resurfacing in Europe, the lessons these stories convey are as critical as ever.”

Mr Taub posthumously honoured Elsie Tilney, a British missionary who saved countless Polish Jews while she was a prisoner of war in occupied France, with a Righteous of the Nations award.

He also paid tribute to Lithuanians Vanda Janaviciene and Kazys Janavicius, a mother and son who saved young Lilly Winterfield by hiding her until the war was over.

Mr Ellwood, who is also an MP for Bournemouth East, praised the recipients of the award, adding that learning about the Holocaust helps us to avoid a repeat of its horrors.

He said: “It is vital that we remember the victims who perished, respect the survivors still with us, and reaffirm humanity's common aspiration for mutual understanding and justice.”

Holocaust Memorial Day is on the January 27, and will be marked with ceremonies across Britain.