Hundreds of people gathered in the region today to pay their respects to the millions of Jews and other persecuted minorities murdered by the Nazis.

As part of Holocaust Memorial Day, ceremonies were held in Norwich, Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft.

The events also gave people a chance to remember the victims of genocides in Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia and Darfur.

More than 150 people attended Norwich's St Peter Mancroft Church for the Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration led by figures from the Jewish and Christian faiths.

In his speech, the Minister of the Norwich Hebrew Congregation, Alex Bennet, said: 'Today's service is to act a constant reminder for us that we all must be very vigilant that this atrocity does not happen again in the future.'

Lord Mayor of Norwich, Tom Dylan, gave a welcoming speech where he spoke of the millions stories that were never told, and never will be, because of the Holocaust atrocity.

Canon Michael Stagg said: 'It is important to have and support this commemoration because we need to be continuously challenged by the past so we can all have a better future.'

Commemoration readings, the mourner's kaddish and special memorial prayer paid tribute to the innocent men, women and children who died in death camps at Belsen and Auschwitz

But the most moving moment of the service came from musician, Frank Pond, who composed and performed a Cello piece especially for the event.

Entitled, Kindertransport, the 86-year-old created his haunting piece by drawing inspiration from the 10,000 children who fled Nazi Germany for England at the start of the war.

In Yarmouth about two dozen people attended a memorial service at the Blackfriars Jewish Cemetery in Blackfriars Road.

The reverend Chris Terry held a short service and the borough's mayor Michael Jeal led a wreath laying ceremony.

About 30 people gathered in the cold weather at Lowestoft's station to take part in a Holocaust Memorial Day service to remember the millions of Jews killed by the Nazis.

The annual ceremony was held at the station in recognition of the 200 Jewish child refugees who arrived there in December 1938 to be billeted across the region.

Lowestoft mayor Nigel Dack led the service. He said: 'The train was carrying more than 200 children who were the lucky ones in that they escaped the horror enacted by the Nazi regime over the next seven years.

'But it must be remembered that many of their families and friends were not so lucky and it is for them that we must continue to remember.

'Genocide, anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia and discrimination still continue. We have a shared responsibility to fight these evils.'

Today's ceremonies also marked the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.