Boris Johnson in Auschwitz for the first time in tribute to UK synagogue victims

Borish Johnson visited AuschwitzBirkenau for the first time yesterday (Tuesday) and vowed to show solidarity with Britain's Jewish community. The former prime minister's visit came against a backdrop of rising antisemitism in the UK and Europe and the deaths of two Jews in a terror attack on a synagogue in Manchester.

Mr Johnson joined Jewish leaders, European ministers and Holocaust survivors to mark the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the 1938 Nazi pogrom of Jews in Germany that foreshadowed the murder of 1.1 million men, women and children in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Hero Rabbi Daniel Walker from Heaton Park Synagogue in Manchester travelled with the former Conservative leader and appeared alongside him at an event in Krakow the night before.

Rabbi Walker spoke movingly about the two men from his synagogue, Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby, who were killed in the terror attack on October 2.

Yesterday (Tues) Mr Johnson, wearing a kippah Jewish head covering, laid a wreath at the Birkenau death camp to highlight a horrifying result of rabid antisemitism, which he warned is a virus that is spreading once again.

He told the Daily Express: "I do think there is a rising tide of antisemitism and I do think it's deeply historically illiterate, you've only got to come here and see what happens when you ignore the warnings,.

"In the 30s antisemitism was brewing in Germany, then they had kristallnacht in 1938, and the pogroms, attacks on synagogues, and it led ultimately to what you've got behind us, these enormous gas chambers and crematoria.

"And today on the streets of Europe - I'm sad to say even on the streets of the UK - we see people responding to events in the Middle East with a demand for Israel to be wiped off the map."

At a symposium of the European Jewish Association in the Polish city of Krakow, chairman Rabbi Margolin said the situation was so bad for Jews in Britain and Europe that rabbis were learning the Israeli martial art of Krav Maga. Such are the fears of being attacked for simply walking down the street wearing a kippah Jewish head covering, or Star of David symbol, that ordinary Jews were considering arming themselves with Tasers and pepper spray, he said.

Rabbi Walker told the event that support from the police made the community feel safe but that it was time to go to the root of the problem.

He added: "There has to be some tackling of the source. Someone didn't wake up one morning and decide to go and attack my synagogue and kill my friends, wound my friends. He was born in an atmosphere of hate and we have to find ways of challenging that. Undoubtedly one of the other things, we have to acknowledge that the roots of that hate is definitely in the demonisation of Israel.

"When our attacker stood on the steps and was looking into the window he shouted, 'they are killing our kids'...the ridiculousness of suggesting that two of the nicest people you are ever going to meet would harm a fly, let alone kill kids."

He called for an end to the harmful baseless accusations levelled against