THIS year's Holocaust Memorial Day event in Bournemouth will be held online – with members of the public being asked to light a candle in commemoration and remembrance.

Because of the ongoing Covid restrictions, for the first time in the 21-year history of observing the day, the Bournemouth and Poole Memorial Day Committee will be hosting an event via Zoom.

Set for Sunday, January 24, the theme is 'Be a Light in the Darkness'.

Lynda Ford-Horne, one of the local organisers, said: "Society is so fragmented at the moment, but this event provides an opportunity to pull the community together, and is a profound reminder to us all of the need to be respectful of other people and accepting of our differences."

John Corben, chairman of the Trevor Chadwick Trust, will share the story of unsung local hero, Trevor Chadwick, who had a pivotal role in organising Kindertransport, rescuing 669 children from Czechoslovakia who were in danger of being sent to the Nazi camps.

Trevor, who was a Latin teacher, braved the risk of detection to travel back and forth between England and Prague, coordinating the rescue efforts and liaising with Sir Nicholas Winton in the Home Office in London to organise sponsors and visas, including forged papers, to get the children out.

Meanwhile in her talk ‘Inheriting the flame of the Holocaust’, Marilyn Dexter will be sharing her father Max Rosenblatt’s story and his role in the liberation of Bergen-Belsen.

Max, who grew up in the Jewish community in Liverpool, joined the British Army and was among the soldiers who liberated the Nazi concentration camp, where he saw for himself the horrors perpetrated there and spoke with and helped survivors.

Lynda said: “Despite the lockdown, it was so important we went ahead with this event, and I am so grateful to both John and Marilyn for speaking.

"We must continue to remember and share these stories, to honour the victims and survivors of the holocaust, and to ensure the powerful lessons from history remain ever-present.”

Holocaust Memorial Day is on 27 January, marking the liberation of Auschwitz.

It is an annual event to remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, alongside the millions of other people killed under Nazi persecution and in genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur.

This year people will be asked to join with others up and down the UK in lighting a candle in the window of their homes at 8pm on Wednesday, January 27th - in a unifying act of commemoration and remembrance.

The free event is being held via Zoom on Sunday, January 24 from 3-4.15 pm, and can be booked on Eventbrite at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/holocaust-memorial-day-2021-commemoration-event-tickets-135975808303