SEVENTY-FIVE 'memorial flames' will be lit at Oxford Town Hall to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

The ceremony will be one part of a reflection service on Holocaust Memorial Day, Monday January 27, at 11am in the Old Library.

The service is open to those of any faith or none. Members of the public, city council staff and councillors are welcome to attend.

Read also: Oxford secondary school rated inadequate by Ofsted

The service will also mark the 25th anniversary of the genocide in Bosnia, alongside other genocides around the world, including in Rwanda, Cambodia and Darfur.

The theme of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day is Stand Together.

Those marking it will explore how genocidal regimes throughout history have deliberately fractured societies by marginalising certain groups, and how these tactics can be challenged by individuals standing together with their neighbours, and speaking out against oppression.

Read also: Cyclist dies after being hit by car

Mayor of Oxford Craig Simmons will host the reflection service, which will include an interview with Dr George Gilbert, lecturer in modern Russian History at the University of Southampton, about the persecution of Jews in pogroms.

The service will also include contributions from the City Rector, The Reverend Anthony Buckley; Penny Faust of the Oxford Jewish Congregation; Jawaid Malik of the Oxford Foundation and Labour MP for Oxford East Anneliese Dodds.

Read also: 'Build 10,800 homes and use the green belt' government inspectors tell Oxford

A Yahrzeit (Yiddish for 'a year's time') candle will be lit to reflect and remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, alongside the millions of other people killed under Nazi persecution and in subsequent genocides around the world.

Mr Simmons said: "It is important we remember the horrors of the past to avoid them being repeated.

“Some of my own family came to the UK as refugees from the violent pogroms in Eastern Europe. One of my grandparents escaped from Vitebsk; the widespread massacres of Jews that occurred there in 1941 are well documented. Those family members who remained were certainly killed."