Seventy-four years ago on Sunday (January 27, 1945), Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi death camp, was at last liberated. It became the symbol of the evil that was the Holocaust.

In recent years, UK governments have decided to mark this day as Holocaust Memorial Day. Six million Jewish people, and others of different groups, were rounded up, forced from their homes, and murdered. It is one of the most tragic events in history, and for many of us, still within our lifetimes.

Some survivors continue to live and remind us of their experiences of the evil of genocide.

Holocaust Memorial Day also remembers Genocide in Rwanda, Cambodia, Bosnia and Darfur. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the horrendous Genocide in Rwanda (1994).

These acts in recent history serve as a reminder for us to how evil humanity can be when left unchecked and unchallenged. We must not let such things happen again.

We hear on the news that once again in Europe, including here in the UK, Jewish people are afraid, worried about whether they have a future in safety here. This is an absolute travesty, and we all need to consider the reality of this for that community, to protect them, to learn from historical antisemitism.

In St. Mary’s Church, Tenby, they are planning to mark Holocast Memorial Day with a special service on Sunday at 5 pm. Everyone is welcome.

“The theme chosen for this year by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust is ‘Torn from Home,’ and encourages us to think about what it means to be forced to leave one’s home simply because of your race, ethnicity, or tribe,” said Rev. Joelk Barder, part of the clergy bteam at St. Mary’s “We will hear what this meant for so many people, and then have a chance to pray and reflect together. There will be a minute’s silence, to stand in solidarity with those who died, lost loved ones, or as survivors continue to carry the weight of their experiences in their minds and on their shoulders.

“According to the official wesbite - it can be found here: https://www.hmd.org.uk - we are holding the only Holocaust Memorial Day event in Pembrokeshire here in Tenby, and so it a great privilege to invite all of you to join us to mark and remember Holocaust Memorial Day, to vow ‘Never Again!’

“I end with a quote from Sir Ben Helfgott, a survivor of the Holocaust: ‘I was there. As a child aged nine I was in the ghetto. Aged 15 I was in the concentration camp. We must tell people what happend. No child should go through what I did.” And so we invite all to join us in learning and reflecting together, so that children may never have to experience such evil again’.

• Holocaust Memorial Day 2019: Torn from Home’ in St. Mary’s Church, High Street, Tenby, at 5 pm on Sunday.

If you would like further details, please contact Joel at [email protected] or (01834) 450354.