Genocide victims remembered during Sandwell Holocaust service
GENOCIDE victims killed in wars across the globe were commemorated during a special remembrance service.
Wreaths of daffodils were laid in memory of the millions of victims whose lives were taken by the Nazis, as well those killed during other conflicts.
The event marked Holocaust Memorial Day, which saw people in countries around the world come together to pay tribute to victims.
Deputy Lieutenant for the West Midlands John Wood said: "On Holocaust Memorial Day we can honour the survivors of regimes of hatred and challenge ourselves to use the lessons of their experience to inform our lives today.
"Even here in the UK, discrimination has not ended, nor has the use of the language of hatred. On Holocaust Memorial Day we ask people to learn lessons from the past in order to create a safer, better future.
"There are some who have no memorial, they perished as though they never existed. Forget them not."
Representatives of The Royal British Legion and the Royal Air Force Association joined with the Federation of Birmingham Ex Service Associations for the memorial on Sunday.
Families also turned out to pay their respects during the service at Highfields Memorial Gardens, off High Street.
The Last Post sounded as people fell silent for a minute before all united to make a Statement of Commitment - pledging to honour genocide victims.
Mayor of Sandwell Councillor Ahmadul Haque MBE said: "We need to make sure people now and in the future remember the Holocaust and more recent atrocities."
Mindu Hornick, a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp, bravely shared her ordeal with onlookers during the service.
The grandmother was sent to the Nazi extermination site in Poland with her mother, older sister and two younger brothers.
Only she and her sister survived as they were sent to work in an ammunitions factor, onlookers were told.
The 88-year-old - who is the last survivor of Nazi concentration camps living in Birmingham and came to the UK in 1948 following the Russian invasion of Prague - said: "Without ever forgetting my past, I managed to rebuild a new life in Birmingham.
"I feel it is my duty to express in my own words what we suffered there and to convey the message that it is wrong to stand by when others are being persecuted.
"Holocaust Memorial Day is designed as the day for everyone to remember the millions of people murdered by Nazi persecution in the Holocaust and subsequent genocides."
The theme of this year's Holocaust Memorial Day - which was on Saturday - was The Power of Words.
