Ceredigion MP Ben Lake and Preseli Pembrokeshire MP Stephen Crabb have signed the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Book of Commitment, and pledged their full commitment to Holocaust Memorial Day.

January 27, 1945 was the date that Allied forces liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Nazi concentration and death camp, where 1.1 million Jewish men, women and children were murdered.

Holocaust Memorial Day honoured those who were murdered during the Holocaust, as well as paying tribute to the extraordinary survivors who still work to educate young people today.

It remembered the six million Jews murdered during the Second World War, and the millions of others killed under Nazi persecution and subsequent genocides that took place in Cambodia, Rwanda and Bosnia. 

On and around the day, schools, communities and faith groups across the UK joined together in national and local events to commemorate the victims of such genocides.

Co-ordinated by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, it was an opportunity to consider the contemporary relevance of the Holocaust.

“Holocaust Memorial Day is an important opportunity for people from Ceredigion to reflect on the darkest times of European history,” said Ceredigion MP Ben Lake.

“As the Holocaust moves from living history, to history, it becomes ever more important that we take the time to remember the six million Jewish victims and also pay tribute to the survivors.”

Stephen Crabb, MP for Preseli Pembrokeshire, is a long-standing supporter of the Holocaust Educational Trust and last year led the annual debate in Parliament on Holocaust Memorial Day.

He said: “Holocaust Memorial Day provides an important opportunity to reflect on the horrific Nazi persecution of Jews, remembering the victims and paying tribute to the survivors.

“I have previously had the privilege of meeting survivors and visiting Auschwitz and it is important that we never forget their suffering.

“Holocaust Memorial Day is about remembrance, but it should also be a moment that moves us to consider the darkness still around us today.

“Ensuring that young people in our society are educated on the horrors of the past is fundamental.

"We must stand together to stamp out Antisemitism and other forms of prejudice in our society.”