More than 100 survivors of the Holocaust have gathered in Newcastle for a national commemoration marking the 62nd anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps.
The survivors and their families joined an audience of 1,200 people at the Theatre Royal, to listen to speeches, music and personal testimonies about the atrocities.
Organisers said they hoped the commemoration would ensure the persecution of the Jews by Hitler's Nazi regime would never be forgotten.
Victims of atrocities in Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda were also remembered and appeals were made to stop the deaths in Darfur.
Communities and Local Government Secretary Ruth Kelly told the audience: "The Holocaust was an appalling atrocity, one of the darkest pages in European history, a crime unparalleled in scope and evil.
"It was unthinkable: it was planned. It was unimaginable: it was made real. And the consequences for men and women like us, and families like our own, were horrific."
Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks called on people to remember the other victims of the Holocaust, including gay people, gypsies, the mentally handicapped and the physically disabled.
He emphasised this year's theme of The Dignity of Difference, saying: "At the heart of evil is dislike of the unlike, the fear of difference, the belief that because you are not like me you are a threat to me. Fear becomes hate and hate begets violence and violence turns to murder and murder becomes the attempted annihilation of a whole group.
"The great human challenge is to honour what we have in common while respecting what makes us different because if we had nothing in common we would be unable to communicate, and if we had everything in common we would have nothing to say. If we do not learn the lessons of the past then I fear for our future."
Together with local school children, an experimental choir performed the world premiere of a new choral work.
