A Holocaust Memorial Day service will take place at St Mary's Church, Saffron Walden to remember victims of genocide.

The service will be held at 1.40pm on Friday, January 26, and is an act of 'remembrance and sorrow' for the 6.5 million Jews, Roma people, people with learning disabilities and LGBTQ+ people who were imprisoned and slaughtered by the Nazis between 1936 and 1945.

Holocaust Memorial Day also remembers more recent and present-day genocides. Maira Aisaeva, from the Uyghur community in the UK, will be speaking about the long years of oppression of the Uyghur people by the Chinese Communist Party in East Turkistan.

Maira is president of the UK Uyghur community, and was born in exile to an Uyghur family who fled East Turkistan in 1955.

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She has been defending Uyghur human rights for years, and is a member of the London Uyghur School and the World Uyghur Congress.

Year 6 and 7 pupils from all local schools have been invited, including village schools. The Saffron Walden County High School Chamber Choir will lead the singing, and everyone is welcome to attend.

There will be a retiring collection after the service for the work of the UK Uyghur community.