Islanders invited to mark Holocaust Memorial Day

People in Jersey are being invited to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on Monday.

This year the day commemorates the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration camp.

Holocaust Memorial Day remembers the six million Jews and millions more murdered by the Nazis, and victims of other genocides. Hundreds of islanders were imprisoned in the island and Europe during the Occupation, and 21 of them died in German prisons and camps, said Jersey Heritage.

A commemoration will be held at the Occupation Tapestry Gallery in the Maritime Museum at 13.00 GMT on Monday, followed by the laying of wreaths at the Lighthouse Memorial.

The island is also taking part in the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust's 80 Candles for 80 Years project commemorating the liberation of the camps.

The trust said a specially-commissioned candle stand would be lit to remember Jersey's wartime Jewish community. There will also be a virtual exhibition.

Dr Toby Simpson, the director of the Wiener Holocaust Library, is this year's guest speaker in Jersey.

The library in London is the world's oldest archival and library collection relating to the Holocaust and Nazi era.

He will talk about the library's resources relating to Jersey's wartime history during visits to secondary school students.

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