PEOPLE of all different faiths came together to unite against hatred.

Blackburn town hall played host to the annual holocaust memorial ceremony, with youngsters from secondary schools speaking about standing up to hate and borough youth MP Uday Akram raising the importance of unity.

This year’s ceremony marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. 2020 is also the 25th anniversary of the Bosnian genocide.

Schools groups joined with community leaders and interfaith representatives, gathered together in the spirit of love and peace.

A video from the Holocaust Memorial Trust was shown, and Rabbi Arnold Saunders gave the keynote address.

Other speakers included Blackburn Cathedral’s Canon Missioner Rowena Pailing.

The end of the ceremony was marked with the lighting of candles as a sign of peace and unity, and a one minute silence was observed.

Cllr Mohammed Khan, leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: “In Blackburn with Darwen we mark Holocaust Memorial Day each year with a ceremony to remember the victims of the holocaust and subsequent genocides, and to pay our respects together as a community.

“The theme of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day is ‘stand together’. Standing together is indeed a notion that we wholeheartedly support here in Blackburn with Darwen.

“There is true strength in numbers and when people unite to reject hatred as one, it is very powerful.”