A GROUP, which works to reduce tension and prejudice between people, will be holding a memorial service to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the liberation of Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland.

Celebrating Communities, in Darlington, will host their third Memorial ceremony in Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College on Monday January 27 at 7pm.

The ceremony, led by the Very Reverend Andrew Tremlett Dean of Durham Cathedral, will be remember those who perished in the Holocaust and the millions who have died in genocides and atrocities since 1945.

Students from the college, who visited Auschwitz Concentration Camp last November, will talk about their thoughts and observations having experienced the strange silent and sombre atmosphere of the camp.

Lily Abramson will mention that her ancestors were able to escape the murder by leaving Lithuania just before the war while Robert Curtis-Haigh remembers frightening pictures drawn by children.

Catherine Roberts relates her science lessons to the chemicals used in the gas chamber to kill 700 innocent people, young and old in a matter of minutes and the horror of the magnitude of the killings struck home when Jacob Vicar looked on the enormous pile of shoes taken from victims of the Holocaust ready to be sent back to Germany for re-use.

Councillor Gerald Lee, of Celebrating Communities said: "Over the decades much has been written about the atrocities that occurred across Europe by Nazis Germany.

"Occasionally one reads that we should forget what happened and condemn the appalling treatment of millions of people young and old to a filing cabinet.

"Evidence however still remains that this brutal act of genocide did actually happen and as such we should not forget.

"And should anyone question why after 75 years we should remember the horror just say there are over 6 million reasons why we should remember and each one a father, mother, son or a daughter of people like you and me."

Celebrating Communities works to improve the quality of everyone's life in Darlington by accepting that people from across the world share life's most important values - family, honesty, friendship loyalty and trust.