COMMUNITIES in Christchurch will come together to commemorate the atrocities of the Holocaust next week.

Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on Sunday and the occasion will be marked in Christchurch on Monday, January 28 from 10am with a service at The Captain’s Club Hotel followed by a wreath laying ceremony at the Holocaust Memorial site on the Quomps at Christchurch Quay.

The vicar of Christchurch, Rev Canon Charles Stewart will begin the memorial before leading prayers alongside Rabbi Jesner, from the Bournemouth Hebrew Congregation.

Guests from the Royal British Legion and Royal Navy Association, along with school children from Christchurch Junior School, Priory School, Burton Primary School and Highcliffe St Mark School will also join Mayor Lesley Dedman to lay wreaths at the Holocaust Memorial site.

Those in attendance will be able to hear first-hand stories from Benjamin Thomas. His mother was a refugee who was taken from her home in Germany on the St Louis, but was refused entry to the United States of America. Benjamin’s story captures the theme of this year's Holocaust Memorial Day - Torn from Home.

Rev Canon Stewart will lead the ‘Power of Words’ message, to help understand how language has impacted our lives in the past and up to modern day.

Cllr Dedman said “I would ask that people in our comfortable Borough of Christchurch not only remember the horrors of the past Holocaust but think of those in our own time. I ask that we think of the victims slaughtered in present genocides, and also of people forced out of their homes by persecution, and that we reflect on their efforts to rebuild their lives.”

All residents are welcome to join the memorial event.