Eden District Council will again light Penrith Town Hall purple to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) on Friday, January 27. 

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust (HMDT) encourages remembrance in a world scarred by genocide. They promote and support HMD to remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, alongside the millions of other people killed under Nazi persecution of other groups and during more recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

January 27 also marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp.

This year’s theme highlights the ordinary people who let genocide happen, the ordinary people who actively perpetrated genocide, and the ordinary people who were persecuted. 

Eden District Council leader, Cllr Virginia Taylor, said: “Genocide is facilitated by ordinary people. Ordinary people who turn a blind eye, believe propaganda, or join murderous regimes."