Residents in Nailsea are invited to join with people all over the world later this month, to remember all those who lost their lives in the Holocaust.

Nailsea Town Council will hold a short commemorative service at Lion’s Green, Stockway South, Nailsea, to mark National Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27.

The service has been an annual event since the council organised the planting of an oak tree on the green in 2021, representing 'life, learning and renewal'.

Holocaust Memorial Day marks the date in 1945 when Allied troops liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp in Nazi-occupied Poland.

More than six million Jews were murdered during the Nazi Holocaust, along with millions of other persecuted minorities.

Nailsea councillor Ben Kushner, who has arranged the ceremony, said: “The tragic events in Ukraine over the past year and worrying increase in anti-Semitic racial abuse experienced both in the UK and other parts of the world, clearly demonstrate the ongoing need to never forget the appalling Nazi Holocaust and other horrific genocides.”

Former North Somerset councillor, Tom Leimdorfer, who came to the UK from Hungary in 1956 after surviving the Holocaust, thanks to Hungarian residents who risked their lives to shelter him and his mother, will read the Kaddish Jewish prayer at the service.

It is also hoped that pupils from Nailsea School will take part.

The ceremony begins at 10am and is a public event, open to all.

In other news from Nailsea Town Council, they have listed support to locals during this cost of living crisis.

Organisations and businesses all over Nailsea are coming together to offer support for those who need it – from advice, to financial support, to a place to warm up in.

"If you’re finding the additional strain on your household finances untenable, don’t suffer on in silence," the council said.

Coates House is one such business, and the café bar has gone further by teaming up with Nailsea Community Group to give people the chance to buy £2 vouchers.

These vouchers will then be distributed by the Community Group to people in need.

You can also go along to Nailsea Social Club every Friday from 10:00-4:00 to warm up with a free hot drink.

Once there, you’ll have opportunities to meet new people, enjoy some activities, or just relax with a book or a newspaper