Four Colchester councillors have honoured the millions of people who lost their lives during a horrific moment in history more than 80 years ago.
People around the world commemorated International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Tuesday.
The Holocaust occurred during the Second World war, primarily between 1941 to 1945 when Nazi Germany systematically murdered around 6 million Jewish men, women, and children.
The annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day takes place on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp where prisoners were freed in 1945.
Colchester councillors Kemal Cufoglu, Amy Kirkby-Taylor, Mark Goacher and Lesley Scott-Boutell laid flowers at the city War Memorial and held a two-minute silence.
Mr Cufoglu said: “[We did it to] pay tribute to and never forget those who survived and those who did not.
“May we honour victims’ and survivors’ memories, hopes and unlived lives through our thoughts, manners and actions; and may we have the wisdom, courage and humility to change things for the better.
“We can never take human rights for granted, and I want to thank Councillors Amy Kirkby-Taylor, Mark Goacher and Lesley Scott-Boutell for joining me in this poignant commemoration.”
Last week, the 14th edition of the Dora Love Prize opened at Moot Hall attended by 80 school children.
The prize is named after and in memory of Holocaust survivor Dora Rabinowitz Love, who was imprisoned in the Stutthof concentration camp by the Nazis during the Second World War.
Founded in 2012 by Essex University lecturer Prof Rainer Schulze, the prize scheme has worked with more than 1,500 secondary school and college students in Essex, East Anglia and abroad.
The prize teaches Colchester youngsters to stand up to hatred, discrimination and intolerance.
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