REDDITCH council dignitaries, school pupils and community groups will come together to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day.

Misrad Solakovic, a survivor of Bosnian atrocities, will be guest speaker at the event to be held at the town’s Ecumenical Centre on Saturday January 28.

A traditional procession from the Town Hall, will depart at 10.30am to arrive at the Ecumenical Centre at 11am, stopping at the town’s Holocaust Memorial Marker in Church Green at 10.35am.

Once at the centre, short readings are scheduled from Karen Lumley MP, Redditch Mayor Joe Baker, Gabriela and Daniel Zdanko for the Polish Youth Group, Leah Joy and Nimisha Reji for the Kerala Cultural Association Redditch (KCAR) and Anna Cardi representing Redditch's young people, as well as music and dance performances by the Astwood Bank First School Choir, Redditch Polish School and KCAR.

From noon a talk by Mr Solakovic will take place between refreshments and performances by Redditch Community Gospel Choir.

Redditch Borough Council leader Bill Hartnett said: "Every year we come together as a community in Redditch on Holocaust Memorial Day to remember the lessons of the Holocaust, and other atrocities, to help ensure that they never happen again. Everyone is most welcome to join in. The theme running through this year’s event is 'how can life go on', which is about facing and coming to terms with those atrocities - and what all our responsibilities as may be."

Some 11 million people including six million Jews were systematically murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust, the worst genocide in history.

Holocaust Memorial Day is marked annually on January 27, to remember millions of people who have been murdered or whose lives have been changed beyond recognition during the Holocaust and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

For more on this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day theme go to hmd.org.uk.