Call for memorial for British Jews whose remains were moved to mass grave in 1970s

The reburial of people’s remains in an unmarked mass grave in Brentwood, Essex, broke Jewish law, the organisation which is responsible for their remains said. Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

The remains of thousands of British Jews including Benjamin Disraeli’s grandfather and the prizefighter Daniel Mendoza were reburied in unmarked mass graves to make way for a new university campus.

Half a century later, the Jewish organisation responsible for the graves has for the first time publicly acknowledged that the reburial contravened Jewish law and that there is no lasting memorial to the dead.