HOLOCAUST Memorial Day takes place next week, with St Helens Borough set to honour the anniversary.

Held annually on January 27, Holocaust Memorial Day falls on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp where more than a million people died during the Second World War. 

In total, six million Jewish people, including children, were murdered in the Holocaust, while millions of others were killed in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur. 

To commemorate the day, honourable gestures including a public art exhibition created by local primary school pupils will be seen in the borough. 

St Helens Council’s Cabinet Member for Wellbeing, Culture and Heritage, Councillor Anthony Burns, said: "Holocaust Memorial Day is an opportunity to reflect and remember the countless lives that have been lost throughout history as a result of mass genocide because of ethnicity and religious views, among other things. 

"Thank you to the pupils of Nutgrove Methodist Primary School who have shown maturity beyond their years for putting together an excellent exhibition to raise awareness of one of the darker moments of history – proving that the victims of atrocities like this will never be forgotten – and I would encourage anyone able to, to get down and see it while its around."

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Among the gestures will be the art installation created by pupils from Nutgrove Methodist Primary School and artist Helen Newell, which will see figures created to remember the millions who perished in the Holocaust.

The exhibition will launch at Thatto Heath Library on Friday, January 27, at 2pm, where a candle-lighting ceremony will also take place.

The exhibition will be available to view until Friday, February 17.

On Holocaust Memorial Day, St Helens Library Service will share the video 'Moment of Reflection' on its Facebook page, which features prayers and reading in Hebrew, with book displays and reading lists on the subject matter available to library members.

Other gestures to commemorate the day, following this year’s theme 'Ordinary People', include flying the Holocaust Memorial Day flag above St Helens Town Hall whilst the iconic Steve Prescott Bridge will join other landmarks across the country in lighting up purple, the colours of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, as part of 'Light the Darkness'; a powerful national moment of commemoration and solidarity.

As a 'no place for hate' borough, St Helens Borough Council is calling on residents to be Better Than That, a movement that asks the people of St Helens Borough to come together to stand united against hate by signing an online pledge.   

To show your support, visit https://www.safersthelens.org.uk/noplace4h8.