Holocaust Memorial Day Service

A visibly moved Mayor, Councillor Keith Swift, spoke at the Holocaust Memorial Day Service for the Borough of Rochdale which, this year, was held in Heywood.

The Mayor opened the Service at the Holocaust Memorial in the Memorial Gardens by reading from the Jewish Scriptures, from the Prophet Micah.

Pupils of Siddal Moor Sports College read movingly from the testimony of Jack, who came to England after years spent in a Nazi Concentration Camp.

Pastor Iain Wright invited us never to forget the Shoah, the Holocaust, so that such evils might never happen again.

The gathering, which seemed smaller the organisers probably hoped for, stood in silence while six candles were lit in memory of the 6,000,000 Jews who perished and those other groups targeted by the Nazis.

The three political party leaders reaffirmed the place that the Holocaust has to have in our nation's collective memory, the need for future generations to reflect on the Holocaust and learn from it, and a pledge to fight the evils of genocide, racism, anti-semitism, xenophobia and discrimination today.

Rochdale Music Service provided a musical backdrop to the occasion.