Residents invited to annual Holocaust Memorial Day service

The civic ceremony is taking place on January 27, at Blackfriars Jewish Cemetery on Blackfriars Road. The service is held on that date each year to mark the liberation of the largest Nazi death camp, Auschwitz Birkenau, in 1945.

Rev Canon Simon Ward of Great Yarmouth Minster will lead the ceremony, which begins at 11am. The commemoration service will include a two-minute silence, followed by Cllr Adrian Thompson, the mayor, laying a wreath on behalf of the residents of the borough.

National charity Holocaust Memorial Day Trust coordinates Holocaust Memorial Day as a day for everyone to remember the millions of innocent Jews killed in the Holocaust, as well as later massacres in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

The theme of this year's Holocaust Memorial Day is "One Day", which encourages people to come together to learn about the Holocaust, Nazi persecution and the genocides that followed, in the hope that there may be one day in the future with no genocide. 

For those wishing to pay their respects in private, all three of the borough's Jewish burial places, including Caister Borough Cemetery, off Ormesby Road, and Kitchener Road Jewish Cemetery, will be open from dawn to dusk on the day.

Cllr Thompson, mayor of Great Yarmouth, said: "As a borough, it is important we acknowledge the event of Holocaust Memorial Day as it gives the community the opportunity to pay our respects and empathise with those who lost their lives in the Holocaust.

"It also gives us an opportunity to honour those who survived, ensure that upcoming generations remember the human tragedy of the Holocaust and take action for a better future."