SEVEN candles were lit in memory of the millions of Jews who lost their lives during the Holocaust at the start of a poignant service in Poole.

Religious leaders, dignitaries and members of the public gathered at the Lighthouse for a special service to commemorate World Holocaust Day, which falls on today’s date.

This year’s event also marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp, Auschwitz.

The service, which was held on Sunday, included readings from religious leaders, presentations from youngsters about their visit to Auschwitz and a talk from inspirational Holocaust survivor Arieh Simonsohn, who escaped the Warsaw Ghetto.

The event, which is held annually, is organised by the Bournemouth and Poole Holocaust Memorial Day Committee.

Chairman Lynda Ford-Horne said more than 600 people attended the service.

“It went absolutely fantastically.

“We had hundreds of people attend, including local dignitaries,” she said.

“Every year we light seven candles for the six million Jewish people who died in the Holocaust and one for the other people who were not Jewish.

“This year I said the candles could also represent each of the seven decades which have passed.”

The theme for this year’s Holocaust Memorial day is ‘Keep the Memory Alive’.

In addition to the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, this year’s poignant event also marks the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Bosnia.

  • CLARIFICATION: In a feature on Holocaust Memorial Day in our weekend magazine, we referred to Auschwitz as a Polish concentration camp. The piece should have made it clear that Auschwitz was in fact a Nazi extermination camp in German-occupied Poland. We apologise for any unintentional offence caused.

Poet Laureate tribute: Naming the Darkness

EVEN in Auschwitz father was able To teach from the Torah on a secret table, Asking the Lord for His mercy and redress, Praising God in the terrifying darkness, Even in Auschwitz.

Even in Auschwitz, guards gassing children Went home for dinner to families of their own, And asking after school, and kissing their newborn, Calculated for how long a baby must burn In the ovens of Auschwitz.

Even in Auschwitz, amongst the living-dead Laughter was trumpeted, and there were jokes that spread And raged like a fire that was warming; And singing where no hope would be dawning, Even in Auschwitz.

And even from Auschwitz survivors had to go Back into a world that had let it be so, And make each new generation remember All we explain away for an easy future.

Even Auschwitz.

Now Auschwitz is the darkness that’s carried within, That switch too easily thrown in the mind, Deciding each instant to be cruel or be kind; It’s the ego preserved – not me but him.

What remains of Auschwitz Are broken thoughts on the polluted altar, Yet are not all that we have to offer, Who can bear gifts too of human kindness.

It’s Love we struggle with, peace and forgiveness.

Even Auschwitz.

Even Auschwitz.

JAMES MANLOW, Poet Laureate for Bournemouth

A poem written for Holocaust Memorial Day 2015 ‘Keep the Memory Alive’. This is to mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz – the largest and most notorious of the Nazi death camps.