Cheshire East Council is to hold a service of remembrance to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day on Friday 27th January.
The mayor of Cheshire East, Cllr David Marren, will be joined by council leader Cllr Sam Corcoran and deputy leader Cllr Craig Browne along with civic dignitaries to light candles of remembrance at the service.
The guest speaker will be Tomi Komoly, a Hungarian-born Jewish survivor of the Nazi genocide during the Second World War, who received the British Empire Medal for his work in Holocaust education.
Members of the public are welcome to attend, and will be joined by representatives of communities from across the borough.
The service will take place at Sandbach Town Hall and will begin at 11am.
Cllr Marren said: “The 27th of January is an important date in the calendar for people to come together and remember the appalling acts committed by mankind to ordinary people during the Holocaust.
“I would like to invite residents to join us in remembrance and reflection, as we pledge to do all in our power to create a safer, kinder and more tolerant future for all.”
Holocaust Memorial Day marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945 and other genocides worldwide.
The Holocaust resulted in the annihilation of an estimated six million Jews, two million Gypsies, 15,000 homosexual people and millions of others by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.
Since 1945, there have been several other attempted genocides across the world – including in Rwanda, Darfur and Cambodia – and these are also commemorated on Holocaust Memorial Day.
This January’s service marks the tenth consecutive year Cheshire East Council has commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day.
Due to restrictions relating to the coronavirus pandemic, the council issued pre-recorded messages instead of holding live events in 2021 and 2022.
