Every year since 2001 the Mayor of Warwick and Warwick Town Council have marked Holocaust Memorial Day, with a public event involving local schools and local citizens.

This year the event is on Monday 27 January with poetry, readings, and more in-school projects than ever before.

The event will be a special short service of remembrance led by the Mayor of Warwick and others at the Warwick War Memorial in Church Street at 11am.

Each year there is a theme to the event. This year it is "For a Better Future".

Students from local secondary schools and some primaries are involved, reading poems and recounting their involvement in projects focused on past persecutions and genocides including the Holocaust and more recent events around the world.

For example Aylesford School pupils will talk about their involvement in the 'Lessons from Auschwitz' project organised by the Holocaust Educational Trust.

Children will also be coming to the street event in the morning, joining the MP for Warwick and Leamington, Matt Western, the Mayor of Warwick, Cllr. Dave Skinner, and other civic leaders from the wider area for the short act of remembrance. 

Organiser, Dave Sternberg said: "We are proud that this annual Warwick event has continuing strong support from the local primary and secondary schools. It is important that we remember and learn from the terrible events of the past, and never forget the Holocaust and other genocides of the past century.

"We mark and remember genocides such as those in Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia and Darfur. Talking to the younger generations about the horrors of the past and the terrible things we humans can do to each other if we are not vigilant, helps to ensure that we are always respectful and kind to others."

 Other events marking the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz will be talks and assemblies in the schools.

 At the Visitor Centre in the Warwick Court House, there will be a small exhibition to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day during the week starting January 22.