HOLOCAUST Memorial Day will be commemorated on Monday, 27 January, 2014.

As mayor I will be representing the borough at a County Service of Commemoration to be held at Winchester Cathedral on the evening of Holocaust Memorial Day. I am also hoping to attend a similar service within the borough during the day.

The theme of Holocaust Memorial Day this year is “Journeys”.

On its website (hmd.org.uk), the Holocaust Memorial Trust is highlighting how journeys themselves became part of genocide, and how the journeys undertaken were often experiences of persecution and terror for so many people who suffered in the Holocaust, under Nazi persecution and in the subsequent genocides.

It also highlights life stories of journeys that brought survivors to the UK and how, in many instances, journeys of return have been part of the experience of rebuilding.

I very much hope that groups and individuals within the borough will commemorate this important memorial day in their own way.

Councillor Janet Whiteley, Mayor of Test Valley