A Holocaust Memorial Day service will be held in the Great Yarmouth borough this month to remember the 6 million Jews who perished under the Nazi regime during the Second World War.

Great Yarmouth Borough Council is inviting members of the public to attend a short civic ceremony to be held at Blackfriars Jewish cemetery, in Blackfriars Road, on Wednesday, January 27, at 11am.

The annual service, which will also be attended by civic dignitaries, will include a two-minute silence. Bread will be passed to attendees as a token of remembrance, and Cllr Shirley Weymouth, the mayor of the borough of Great Yarmouth, will lay a wreath on behalf of residents.

For those wishing to pay their respects in private, all three of the borough's Jewish burial places, including those at Kitchener Road and Caister Borough Cemetery, off Ormesby Road, will be open from dawn to dusk on the day.

Holocaust Memorial Day, promoted by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, a national charity, is a day for everyone to remember the millions killed in the Holocaust, Nazi persecution, and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Darfur.

January 27 marks the day Auschwitz Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp, was liberated in 1945. The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2016 is 'Don't Stand By' and asks everyone to consider their personal responsibility not to be a bystander to persecution and genocide.

Cllr Weymouth said: 'This service is always well attended and is for everyone to remember a tragedy which must never happen again. The theme for 2016 is particularly important, emphasising the active role that good people must play in helping to prevent persecution from taking root in society.

'Holocaust Memorial Day is a chance to honour the survivors of regimes of hatred, and challenge ourselves to use the lessons of history to inform our lives today. This service is rotated each year between the borough's three Jewish burial grounds, and I would hope to see many people at the Blackfriars Jewish cemetery this year.'