A LARGE crowd braved freezing temperatures and gathered at Swindon’s war memorial to mark Holocaust Memorial Day.

Coun Rex Barnett, the mayor, laid a wreath at the end of a ceremony on behalf of the people of the town to remember those who died in the Second World War genocide and who have suffered since.

He said: “We hope to take heed of history to stop senseless killing, genocide and persecution which is the scourge of war.”

Organiser Matt Holland said the service not only marked the Holocaust, where millions of Jews were slaughtered, but persecution and suffering throughout history.

He said: “Today there are more young people in Swindon than people of our mature age marking Holocaust Memorial Day which is very encouraging.”

A group of pupils from Ridgeway School, Wroughton, were among those attending along with Martin Vandervelde, president of Swindon’s Jewish community, who was evacuated from London to Wroughton aged five in 1939.

Meanwhile, Kathleen Bluh, the mother of council leader Rod Bluh, told the story of her late husband, Eric, who came to England on the second to last train on the Kindertransport.