Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp survivors have been among those marking the 65th anniversary of its liberation at UK Holocaust Memorial Day events. Many attended a national commemoration at London's Guildhall, with other survivors of genocide and politicians.
Among the survivors at the Guildhall was Lilly Ebert, 79, from Golders Green, north London, who was taken to Auschwitz with her family in 1944. She remembers her time in the largest Nazi concentration camp "so vividly, it could have happened yesterday" and remains traumatised by the experience. "The most important thing is to be alive," she told the BBC. "It's important to be tolerant with each other. It makes no difference what religion you are or the colour of your skin."
More than a million people were murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz. The great majority were Jews but they also included non-Jewish Poles, Roma Gypsies and Soviet prisoners of war. The camp was liberated by the Soviet Red Army on 27 January 1945.
Holocaust Memorial Day is marked with the intention of remembering and honouring the victims and survivors of the Holocaust and those from subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and the ongoing atrocities in Darfur.
Th BBC quotes the Archbishop of Canterbury, David Cameron, Labour Lord Janner of Braunstone, at the event in London. Oddly not the Chief Rabbi though.
In Reading an Anne Frank Exhibition at Broad Street Mall. The Holocaust display will run from 9.30am to 5pm on Monday, January 25, to Friday, January 29. (0118) 951 0279
Stonewall Chief Executive Ben Summerskill discusses the persecution of Gay men and Lesbians under the Nazi regime and why Holocaust Memorial Day is an important day in the equalities calendar in the UK.
They even have a bloggers pack, I think I am the first blogger to notice it though. I don't find it easy to write about this subject, too many members of my family were killed. My grandparents were lucky to have left Lithuania by then; all those that remained, died.
Holocaust Memorial Day website
Legacy of hope
Martin Salter may have been there too.
Cllr Ennis was at a civic centre event. He says 'it is the pursuit of power, influence, resources and particularly money that acts as a pretext for genocide and war.'
Holocaust Memorial Day Exhibition in Wokingham
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