A CANDLE will be lit in South Lakeland to mark Holocaust Memorial Day and as part of a national initiative to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Kendal has been chosen to host the lighting of one of 70 candles designed by world-renowned artist Sir Anish Kapoor as part of the commemorations.

Concentration camp survivor Joe Berger will light the candle at Kendal Town Hall on Monday January 26 to honour survivors of the Holocaust and subsequent genocides.

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The event in Kendal was chosen to be part of the candle-lighting from hundreds of applications sent to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, the charity responsible for marking Holocaust Memorial Day in the UK.

As part of the Kendal commemorations there will also be a short ceremony at The Birdcage on Finkle Street at 12 noon and a free afternoon public concert performed in Kendal Town Hall by international concert pianist Anthony Hewitt, starting at 2pm.

The Birdcage will be adorned with artwork produced by students at the Lakes School, Troutbeck Bridge, and student Keelan Hardy will read out a poem he has composed for the event, while a member of the Lancaster and Lakes Jewish community will be saying the Kaddish.

All the events have been organised by South Lakeland District Council (SLDC) and its chairman Evelyn Westwood, working together with the Lake District Holocaust Project.

South Lakeland has a direct link to Holocaust survivors after 300 Jewish children from concentration camps came to Windermere directly from the Theresienstadt camp in Eastern Europe after it was liberated in 1945.

The concert by Anthony Hewitt will be performed against a backdrop of projected films from the archive of the Lake District Holocaust Project, which curates a permanent exhibition at Windermere Library that records the story of the childrens’ journeys to South Lakeland.

Candle-lighter Joe Berger was in Theresienstadt from 1942 until liberation in 1945, when, aged 12, he came to the Lake District as one of the children evacuated to Britain under the ‘Kindertransport’ project. He will be accompanied at the ceremony by fellow concentration camp survivor and evacuee Gerda Rothberg.

The 300 children who came to the Lake District spent a period of recuperation at the former Calgarth estate at Troutbeck Bridge before embarking on new lives. One of the ‘Windermere children’ is Ben Helfgott, who is now the Honorary President of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.

Chairman of SLDC, Cllr Evelyn Westwood, said: “This is a very special event for South Lakeland. I hope people will learn from the Holocaust and other genocides and that this will strengthen bonds of respect and enable us to pledge to take a step, to create a safer, better future.

Director of the Lake District Holocaust Project, Trevor Avery, said: “Holocaust Memorial Day is an important focal point in the year and we are delighted to have been chosen to be part of this nationwide commemoration. It is vital that we remember and reflect upon the horrors of the past, and honour those who survived.

Sir Anish Kapoor, 60, is best known for his sculpture work, including the ArcelorMittal Orbit, an observation tower built in Stratford’s Olympic Park for London 2012, and Chicago’s mirrored, legume-shaped Cloud Gate, which is commonly known as the Bean.