mayor carl storer

YOUNG and old alike gathered as the borough of Welwyn Hatfield marked Holocaust Memorial Day.

crowds gather

A service at Link Drive, Hatfield, on Friday morning was led by borough mayor Carl Storer.

Hatfield town mayor Howard Morgan, WGC Synagogue chairman Reynold Rosenberg and students from Onslow St Audrey’s School were among those in attendance. There were readings and speeches, the dedication of a new plinth and plaque, and Cllr Storer released doves, a symbol of peace, into the air.

Cllr Storer told the WHT the service was well attended.

He said: “It was the biggest one we’ve had, and it’s getting more and more popular.

WGC synogogue chairman Reynold Rosenberg

“I think people are becoming more and more aware of the Holocaust and what it stands for.

“We were there to remember man’s cruelty to his fellow man, and we should never forget that.”

Holocaust Memorial Day, first held in 2001, is staged annually on January 27 – the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp by the Soviet Army, in 1945.

It is dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Holocaust at the hands of the Nazis, as well as those killed in more recent acts of genocide around the world.

The event is organised by the Holocaust Memorial Trust and themed each year – this year it was ‘Speak Up, Speak out’.