MONDAY, January 27 is International Holocaust Memorial Day and Thurrock will be marking the event under the theme The Journey from Hate to Hope.
A memorial service and commemorative events will be held on the day – the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945
The service will be held 11am at the High View Avenue Memorial Gardens in Grays with both Prayers of Faith and speeches by civic leaders.
A permanent memorial arranged by young people who have visited Auschwitz will be unveiled to mark the tradition of laying pebbles.
The event is open to all and free to enter.
Further events to mark the day and examine the wider issues of intolerance will be held at the Thameside Theatre throughout the same day.
People are invited to watch the film The Boy In the Striped Pyjamas (Cert 12) at 1.30pm and at 6pm a presentation by young people who visited Auschwitz-Birkenau this year will be given.
Every year since 2009, Thurrock Council has supported a group of young people from different schools in the borough to visit Auschwitz (or another death camp) to learn about the horrors of the Holocaust while exploring contemporary examples of genocide, discrimination and bullying.
Other events will include an exhibition and information about reporting Hate Crime in Thurrock.
The event is supported by Thurrock Faith Matters – a collective of different faiths working together in Thurrock.
