An annual service to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day will take place in Havant Cemetery, New Lane, Havant.
The event on Friday 27 January at 11am, will be led by Councillor Leah Turner and will include a reading by the Mayor of Havant, Councillor Diana Patrick.
All members of the public are invited to attend the service on this day which is recognised as commemorating the 12 million people who lost their lives during the Holocaust, this includes 6 million Jews. Romanies, people with psychiatric disabilities, Roman Catholics, and others were also being targeted by the Nazis.
The day is recognised across the world to remember the six million Jews that were murdered during the Holocaust, as well as the millions of other people killed from 1933-1945 under the Nazi persecution and in genocides across the world since.
Councillor Leah Turner said: “By commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day we hope to help prevent any such atrocity from occurring again.
We have invited each Secondary School within the borough to our service, some of whom will give readings, as by keeping the memories alive for future generations we are most likely to stop a reoccurrence of these awful events.”
The Mayor of Havant, Councillor Diana Patrick, added: “We must continue to stand up against hatred prejudice and discrimination of any group whether that be race, ethnicity, gender, or sexuality.
“I would like to invite all residents in the borough to attend the event to show that we support an important day of remembrance.”
The theme for this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day is ‘Ordinary People’ which encourages the public to speak out and stand up to prejudice and hatred.
More information is available on the Holocaust Memorial Day website www.hmd.org.uk.
About the Holocaust Memorial
Placed in Havant Cemetery, Eastern Road, Havant, PO9 2JQ since 2007 by Havant Borough Council.
The memorial is made from a block of Welsh Slate and has a stainless steel ‘flame’ mounted in a hollowed out section. The ‘flame’, which is the symbol of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, is to represent warmth, hope and remembrance emerging from the cold of the slate.