West Country marks Holocaust Memorial Day
Events are planned across the region
Events will take place across the West Country today to mark Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD).
The occasion is used for education, commemoration and to remember all the victims and survivors of the Holocaust.
This year the theme for HMD is ‘ordinary people’, the reason being, the Holocaust Memorial Trust says, ordinary people turned a blind eye eight decades ago to allow the genocide to happen.
A virtual event will take place on Bristol’s HMD Youtube Channel later.
The event will be available to watch from 12pm onwards this Friday (January 27).
Elsewhere there will be a Holocaust Memorial Talk with Gloria Silver at 5:30pm at One Temple Quay.
She will give a presentation on her father who escaped a Nazi camp and survived the war.
The talk will last 40 minutes with extra time for questions.
Meanwhile an event organised by Bob Copeland will take place at St Mary’s Church in Kingswood, Gloucestershire.
The event starts at 7:30pm and will reflect on the deep concerns of survivors about our inability to stop genocide.
Across the nation at 4pm people will light candles and put them safely in their windows to remember those who were murdered and as a symbol against prejudice and hatred today.
Last December Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer joined commemorations of the Holocaust.
A moment of silence was held in the Commons to mark the anniversary of the first public announcement by the government of the Nazi's atrocities against the Jews.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle said: "It takes a lot to quieten the House of Commons, but 80 years ago MPs were spontaneously stunned into silence after it was confirmed that the Nazis were undertaking the systematic mass murder of the Jewish population in Europe.
"It was a moment like no other and was described by one parliamentary correspondent as being 'like the frown of the conscience of mankind'."