People in Redditch are being invited to take part in an event in the town that will remember the millions of people killed in the Holocaust and genocides worldwide.

Residents can make their own contributions to this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations by bringing decorated rocks to go on the Holocaust Marker on Church Green, alongside the town’s ‘Redditch Rocks’ group.

Decorated rocks can be dropped at the Town Hall by next Saturday morning (January 29th) to become part of the memorial event that’s scheduled for 10.30am that day, after which people will be invited to take one away and give it a new home elsewhere in Redditch.

Cllr Peter Fleming, Chair of the Holocaust Memorial Steering Group at Redditch Borough Council, said: “We’ve been delighted by the response of the community to our invitation to come and get involved with Redditch’s Holocaust Memorial Day.

“We’ve seen some great work from local schoolchildren around this year’s theme of ‘one day’ and I’m sure it will inspire some great creativity on the rocks too. It good to have something that everyone can take part in, and it’ll be a visible symbol of Redditch once again marking this important day.”

Anyone can attend the Holocaust Memorial Day event which is on Saturday January 29th, starting at 10.30am. It will see a short procession from the Town Hall to the marker for readings including from the Mayor and MP of Redditch. It’s expected to finish at 11am.

Cllr Matt Dormer, Leader of Redditch Borough Council, said: “I’d like to thank everyone involved in organising this year’s events as we once again come together at the famous marker on Church Green to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.”

Holocaust Memorial Day exists to help us to honour the memory of all victims of genocide and atrocity in the world and to strive to ensure that we do not allow such things to occur again. It remembers the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, alongside the millions killed under Nazi persecution of other groups as well as the people who died in genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur.

This year’s ‘one day’ theme asks us to think about what one day in history can teach us, and to imagine one day in a future without genocide.