ANDOVER’S MP has marked Holocaust Memorial Day by signing the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Book of Commitment, and urging others to reflect on a ‘dark time in history’.

Speaking to the Advertiser, Kit Malthouse said: “It is now 77 years since the liberation of the concentration camps of Europe, and the end of the Second World War.

“Holocaust Memorial Day is an important day for all of us to reflect on this dark time in history, and remember the six million Jewish victims."

Holocaust Memorial Day takes place each year on January 27, which marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, the largest Nazi death camp, in 1945.

National landmarks lit up in purple, including the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament, the Natural History Museum and Cardiff Castle.

Households across the UK joined the commemorations by lighting a candle in their window at 8pm.

A candle was also burning in the window of the Prime Minister’s residence 10 Downing Street.

Laura Marks, chair of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, spoke of the meaning of this year’s theme, “One Day”.

She said: “One day is Holocaust Memorial Day, one day Bergen-Belsen was liberated.

One day each of our survivors got out or their parents were taken away.

“One day in the future maybe we won’t need Holocaust Memorial Day because we’ll have learned to tolerate each other, we’ll have learned to respect difference, to celebrate difference.”

She added: “There’s obviously a huge sadness but it’s also a hope and that light in the darkness, and I choose to focus on that and think about how together with the candles we can actually change the world we’re living in and really light the darkness.”

During a special ceremony in Westminster to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle urged people to call out intolerance and work together to build a “happier future”.