Holocaust Memorial Day - Pay your respects in Kettering, Corby, Rushden, and Wellingborough with annual services taking place this month

Holocaust memorial day, an annual occurrence in remembrance of the genocides committed around the world, is to be honoured once again in north Northamptonshire in January.

Services are taking place in towns all over the county, inviting those who wish to pay their respects with small gestures, and time for reflection planned over the last weekend of the month.

In Kettering, Manor House Gardens will host a ceremony where attendees will be given the chance to lay a white pebble in remembrance at 2pm on Friday, January 26.

Cllr Fedorowycz, mayor of Kettering said: "Given everything that is happening in the world, it is even more timely to take these few precious moments out to reflect, and commit to avoiding future tragedies. I would like to invite along everyone who can come, to mark this act of remembrance.”

The Holocaust Memorial Flag will be raised from the flagpole in front of the council offices in Bowling Green Road during the short service, which will be led by Reverend David Walsh and this year will involve representatives from the Ukrainian community in Kettering, and from local faith groups.

Also on Friday, January 26, Rushden Town Council will be holding a short service ‘to remember the victims and those whose lives have been changed beyond recognition’ as a result of the Holocaust, Nazi persecution, and subsequent genocides throughout the world.

At 5pm at the Rushden War Memorial, there will be a short reading, one minute of silence and the lighting of a candle.

The candle will remain lit throughout Saturday, January 27, to commemorate the United Kingdom Holocaust Memorial Day.

‘An evening of reflection’ with the theme of ‘Fragility of Freedom’ will take place in The Chambers in the Corby Cube on Saturday, January, 27, with a choir performance and a guest speaker.

The ticketed event will last for 90 minutes from 6.30pm until 8pm, and is free to attend. Tickets can be reserved here.

Swanspool Gardens will host the Wellingborough service on Sunday, January 28, from 2pm.

A Wellingborough Town Council spokesperson said: “Holocaust Memorial Day is One Day that we put aside to come together to remember, to learn about the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and the genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur, in the hope that there may be one day in the future with no genocide.

"We learn more about the past, we empathise with others today, and we take action for a better future.”

The event will be followed by refreshments and in Swanspool Pavilion where there will Holocaust Memorial Day information on display.

International Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on January 27, marking the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland in 1945.

This year, Holocaust memorial day 2024 marks the 30th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, where the lives of over one million Tutsis were taken in just one hundred days.

Remembering the impact of such actions ensures they are never repeated.