Cheshire East Council to mark Holocaust Memorial Day

Cheshire East Council is to hold a service of remembrance to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day.

The Mayor of Cheshire East, Councillor David Marren, alongside council leader Cllr Sam Corcoran and deputy leader Cllr Craig Browne, will lead civic dignitaries and members of the public in lighting candles of remembrance at the service in Sandbach on Friday 27 January.

The guest speaker will be Mr Tomi Komoly BEM, a Hungarian-born Jewish survivor of the Nazi genocide during the Second World War. He received the British Empire Medal for his work in Holocaust education.

Members of the public are welcome to attend and will be joined by representatives of communities from across the borough. The service will take place in Sandbach Town Hall at 11am.

Cllr Marren said: “The 27th of January is an important date in the calendar for people to come together and remember the appalling acts committed by mankind to ordinary people during the Holocaust.

“I would like to invite residents to join us in remembrance and reflection, as we pledge to do all in our power to create a safer, kinder and more tolerant future for all.”

Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on Friday 27 January – marking the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration and death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945, and genocides worldwide.

The Holocaust resulted in the annihilation of an estimated six million Jews, two million Gypsies, 15,000 homosexual people and millions of others by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.

Since 1945, there have been several other attempted genocides across the world – including Rwanda, Darfur and Cambodia – and these are also commemorated on Holocaust Memorial Day.

This January’s service marks the 10th consecutive year Cheshire East Council has commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day. Due to the disruption from the coronavirus pandemic, the council issued recorded messages, rather than live events, in 2021 and 2022.