The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust is asking people to show support by becoming part of its ‘Legacy of Hope.’

As the world commemorates Holocaust Memorial Day, the stark reminder of the tragedy and oppression that millions endured more than 65 years ago remains.

Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) is remembered internationally on the 27 January - the anniversary of the day in 1945 when the Soviet Army liberated the largest Nazi concentration camp – Auschwitz-Birkenau. It has become an annual event where nations across the world pause to remember the racism, prejudice and exclusionary behaviour inflicted on people.

However, what began as a day to remember the victims and survivors of the Holocaust, it now also includes those who have been affected by subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and the ongoing atrocities in Darfur.

Hundreds of events are taking place all over the UK to mark the occasion and raise awareness of why people need to remember what happened all those years ago.

The Holocaust claimed the lives of more than six million European Jews during World War II and the atrocities still haunt those survivors and the latest generation who cannot imagine such pain.

Roman Halter was just 12 years old when Poland was invaded by Hitler’s troops. He said: “We were made to wear armbands with the Star of David on them and to walk in the gutter. By the following year, autumn 1940, of the 800 Jews who originally lived in our town, 360 were left. 

“When we arrived there, the Lodz ghetto was overcrowded and could only accept 120 of us. My grandfather, father, mother, half-sister and two of her children, and I were amongst the 120 taken in, but the remainder were taken away and shot.”

Jews all across Europe were oppressed. Malka Levine is from the Ukraine: “I was born in 1939 in a town called Vladimir-Volinsk in western Ukraine. I am one of three children and my two brothers, Chaim and Shalom, also survived the Holocaust. The rest of my wider family – 78 people in all – were all killed, including my father. My mother also survived and this is very unusual: she is the only woman I know of who managed to bring three children through the Holocaust.”

Only a month ago we were reminded of how significant the Auschwitz camp remains in 21st century life when the Auschwitz sign ‘Arbeit Macht Frei’ – Work sets you free – was stolen from the camp entrance. Though quickly found, the initial uproar was testament to how open the wound still is for survivors and families of those who perished there.