PUPILS are set to take part in a solidarity march to remember victims of the Holocaust later this month.

The event, at Teesdale School, Barnard Castle, is organised by sixth former, Jake Madgwick Lawton, who is also Regional Ambassador for the Holocaust Education Trust.

As part of a school assembly, the 17-year-old announced that the march will take place on January 27 - which is also the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp - which is now known as Holocaust Memorial Day.

He hopes staff and pupils will get behind the project which will see each student walk in silence for about 500 meters – a combined 300,000 meters for the whole school – equating to 5cm for each victim.

Each pupil will also carry profile information of a Holocaust victim while they walk which Mr Madgwick Lawton said would remind people that the victims were “just like you and me”.

The teenager, who has also visited Auschwitz, said: “It will be a sense of physical unity and doing something collectively but it also sends a message to people who hear about it, or read about it and a message to ourselves that it’s so important that we remember and keep the memory alive, and make sure we don’t forget those who died.”

Teesdale School co-principle, Simon Maguire, said: “It’s a very sombre event but it’s fantastic we are going to take part in that event and realise what’s happened.”