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Town remembers millions killed in Holocaust

News imageEmma Baugh/BBC A man and two women walking in a line in King's Lynn. The man on the left has a dark formal coat on and is wearing a brown trilby-style hat. The woman in the middle is wearing a blue coat with a fur collar and is carrying a wreath of blue and white flowers. The woman on the right is a police officer in uniform, with medals and carrying a wreath of pink, yellow, blue and magenta flowers. Other people are following behind. Emma Baugh/BBC
Donna Semmens (centre) from the West Norfolk Jewish community helped organised the event, which is being marked for the 25th year in King's Lynn

People marking a town's Holocaust Memorial Day have spoken of the importance of remembering those that died.

Paul Van der Hulke, from the West Norfolk Jewish community, attended the community service at the town hall in King's Lynn.

He remembered a family friend, the Holocaust survivor Harry Olmer who died earlier this month, saying first-hand accounts from survivors were "getting fewer and fewer".

The event was attended by school children, councillors, police, as well as members of the Jewish community.

News imageEmma Baugh/BBC Paul Van der Hulke who is wearing a Trilby-style hat and a grey overcoat over a shirt and tie. He is wearing glasses. He is standing outside with grass and buildings behind him. Emma Baugh/BBC
Paul Van der Hulke said 81 years after the first concentration camp was liberated, there were fewer Holocaust survivors around to share their first-hand accounts

Van der Hulke gave a reading from If this is a Man by Primo Levi, which described the author's experiences in Auschwitz.

"We need to remember, we need to treat each other as we want to be treated ourselves," he said.

Andy Bullen, mayor of King's Lynn and West Norfolk, echoed Van der Hulke's words saying: "I think it's very important that children are reminded about what happens in the Holocaust, but this is a much broader message about tolerance, inclusion, understanding people, not jumping to conclusions or making assumptions about other people."

News imageEmma Baugh/BBC Andy Bullen standing inside King's Lynn town hall. He is wearing a gold mayoral chain over a dark suit, white shirt and tie. He has swept back grey hair and a short grey goatee beard. Emma Baugh/BBC
Mayor Andy Bullen wanted as many people to attend the event as possible, and especially school children

The King's Lynn event was held two days before the 81st anniversary of liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest German concentration camp in Poland.

Victims of subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur were also be remembered.

West Norfolk local policing inspector Ben Jarvis attended on behalf of Norfolk Police and said: "As we heard in the town hall today, it's about bridging that generational gap.

"A lot of life is very different from the 1930s, 1940s, yet we still can't forget what happened that time ago and how that plays out now."

Donna Semmens, who is also from the West Norfolk Jewish community, helped organise the service.

She said she hoped "having the children here, the younger generation, they're the people that carry the torch forward for us into the future and as long as they know and they understand and they remember then all is not lost".

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