LOCAL schoolchildren will take centre stage today as Inverclyde marks Holocaust Memorial Day with a special event.

Notre Dame High School will be the venue for an afternoon of presentations, musical performances and readings commemorating those who lost their lives during the atrocities, as well as those who survived.

Pupils from Notre Dame will recount their visit to Auschwitz last year with stories and photographs, and they will be joined by St Columba’s pupils to speak on their Diocesan visit to Poland.

There will be a variety of readings, including one by a pupil from Clydeview Academy who will recount letters sent from concentration camps, as well as a reading in Polish.

Music will be provided too, with pupils performing a series of pieces which includes part of the score from Schindler’s List.

Provost Robert Moran met some of the pupils involved in the memorial event as they finalised their preparations yesterday, pictured.

Today is the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and Inverclyde will join with towns and cities across the world to remember the millions of Jewish men, women and children who perished in ghettos, mass-shootings, concentration camps and extermination camps.

Provost Moran, who will be speaking at the event, said: “For my generation the horror of the Holocaust is within touching distance through family.

“It is part of our history but is recent enough to feel very real.

“Our young people will show how important it is to keep the memory alive of these events.

“Young people from our schools each year get the opportunity to visit places such as Auschwitz and come back to share their experiences with pupils and the wider community.

“While there is tragedy and heartbreak at the centre of many of the stories, the theme of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Event, ‘Keep the memory alive’, highlights exactly why this day is so important.

“By sharing the words and experiences of those who aren’t here to tell their story, we all keep their memories alive, and the hope that we can all learn from the past.”