LEIGH and Wigan will remember the six million victims of the Holocaust at memorial services on Friday.

Ceremonies to commemorate the mass killing of Jews and others by the Nazi regime during World War ll will take place at 11am in Wigan and at 2.30pm in Leigh.

Council Leader Lord Smith will attend the Firs Park, Leigh, ceremony and deputy Mayor, Cllr Geoff Roberts, the Mesnes Park service. Both will take place beside the commemorative silver birch trees planted last year

Sunday brings the 57th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camps by the Russian Army, and the main feature of the ceremonies will be readings and meditation by students from Bedford High, Leigh, and Kingsdown High, Wigan.

Six commemorative candles will be lit in memory of the victims and the innocent victims of countless other genocides.

Alkia Clegg, of Standish, whose parents were members of the Dutch resistance will speak at both services.

Lord Smith said: "There can be no greater evidence of man's inhumanity to fellow man than the Holocaust, an enormous and heinous crime which scars humanity even today."

"Holocaust Memorial Day enables all civilised people to show their respect for the victims of that and other atrocities that continue to shame us all.

"It also acts as a vehicle for promoting a just and tolerant society, free of the evils of prejudice and bigotry."