A much loved Rabbi who returned to Germany to serve the Jewish community many years after escaping the Nazis with his family has died at the age of 93.

Rabbi Willy Wolff fled Germany with his family as a child and trained as a journalist on the Slough Observer before going on to a 30 year career that included becoming a Parliamentary correspondent and reporter of global events for national newspapers, including the Daily Mail, Daily Mirror and Reuters.

But he never abandoned his dream of becoming a Rabbi and was finally ordained at the age of 53 in 1984.

Rabbi Wolff went on to hold posts at Synagogues in Newcastle, Brighton, Hove, Wimbledon and Milton Keynes.

But he never forgot his German roots and in an historic appointment was made State Rabbi of Mechlenburg-Vorpommern in Germany – a post which had previously been vacant for 65 years.

He served the Jewish communities there until his retirement at the age of 88 – during which time he learnt Russian to be able to cater to the significant number of Jews from the Former Soviet Union in these areas. In 2014 he was named an honorary citizen by the City of Schwerin.

He became known to Germany’s movie-going audiences in 2011, through filmmaker Britta Wauer's documentary about Berlin’s historic Weissensee Jewish Cemetery.

He featured heavily in the film and Ms Wauer went on to make a documentary about him, called Rabbi Wolff - A Gentleman Before God.

“We will miss him deeply,” Wauer said on her Facebook profile. “He had an immense capacity to love and to be loved. May he rest in peace.”