A TOUCHING service to mark Holocaust Memorial Day was held at St Helens town hall on Wednesday (January 27).

A packed-out town hall saw students from across the borough attend and take part to commemorate victims of genocide.

The service included a dance performance by Carmel College students entitled ‘Tik Vah’ – Hebrew for ‘Hope’ - while primary school pupils from Merton Bank and The District C of E were joined by students from Haydock, De La Salle and Mill Green, for readings and the poignant lighting of candles.

The ceremony followed this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day 2016 theme of ‘Don’t Stand By.’

Mayor Cllr Steve Glover and council leader Barrie Grunewald also lit candles while Cllr Geoff Pearl read out a Hebrew prayer.

St Helens Council’s portfolio holder for libraries, Councillor Jeanie Bell, said: “Holocaust Memorial Day is about remembering the victims and those whose lives have been changed beyond recognition of the Holocaust, Nazi persecution and subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and the ongoing atrocities throughout the world today.

"Holocaust Memorial Day provides us with an opportunity for all the diverse strands of our communities to come together, to honour the survivors but it's also a chance to look to our own lives and communities today."

Meanwhile over in Central Library from Monday, January 25 to Thursday 28, the Champion of the Child exhibition, courtesy of the Jewish Museum, London, has been displayed, paying homage to Janusk Korczak, the much loved Polish orphanage director and children’s author who repeatedly refused sanctuary to stay with the children, before being led to his death at Treblinka Extermination Camp.

The 'No Place for Hate' flag was flown above the town hall on the day and the council is encouraging people to sign an online pledge against hate crime.

To sign it visit: safer.sthelens.gov.uk/pledges/hate-crime-pledge/