This week I was proud to sign the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Book of Commitment, re-pledging my commitment to supporting Holocaust Memorial Day, honouring those who were murdered during the Holocaust, as well as paying tribute to the extraordinary Holocaust survivors who work tirelessly to educate young people today.

Holocaust Memorial Day falls on 27th January every year, the anniversary of the liberation of the infamous former Nazi concentration and death camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945. Across the UK – and world – people will come together to remember the horrors of the past. 

In the lead up to and on Holocaust Memorial Day, thousands of commemorative events will be arranged by schools, faith groups and community organisations across the country, remembering all the victims of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides. The theme for this year’s commemorations is ‘Ordinary People’.

On Holocaust Memorial Day we also remember and pay tribute to all of those persecuted by the Nazis, including Roma and Sinti people, disabled people, gay men, political opponents to the Nazis and others. We also remember all of those affected by genocide since, in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. 

Holocaust Memorial Day is an important opportunity for people from South Northamptonshire and across the UK to reflect on the darkest times of European history, and I know that in the constituency, commemorations are also taking place to remember the six million Jewish men, women and children who were murdered in Holocaust.