On World Holocaust Remembrance Day Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that a £50m grant will be spent on establishing a national centre for the study of the Holocaust and to create a national memorial in central London.
The announcement came as commemorative events were held in Britain and around the world on Holocaust Memorial Day (27th January, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the most infamous of the many Nazi extermination camps by the Red Army).
About 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were killed at the camp in southern Poland between 1940 and 1945. It opened as a museum in 1947 and is now visited by over a million visitors each year, including many UK school groups.
Now the new centre will be a "world-class" education and learning centre to maintain awareness for generations to come of "the darkest hour of human history", Prime Minister David Cameron said.
Some of the government's £50 million funding will go towards the construction of the "striking and prominent" monument and an endowment fund to secure the long-term future of Holocaust education.
After announcing the funding in the Commons, Chancellor George Osborne told MPs: "We will go on funding the work of the Holocaust Educational Trust, which takes MPs and many, many school children to Auschwitz to see for themselves the horror that happened there.
"I think across the House we can come together to commemorate this day but also to make sure it is never forgotten... and we never repeat its mistakes."
Asked if he was determined to combat modern-day anti-semitism, Mr Cameron - who recently visited Auschwitz - said: "Absolutely. Part of why remembering the Holocaust matters so much is that it reminds people where anti-semitism, prejudice and hatred end. The two things are very much linked."
The Duke of Cambridge echoed the theme of Holocaust Memorial Day 2015 - keeping the memory alive - in his own message: "The commemorations allow us to honour the victims of one of the darkest chapters in human history and pay tribute to the survivors and their stories of hope.
"Memories are the legacy for future generations and we must keep these memories alive to learn from the past and create a safer future."
SchoolTripsAdvisor will keep you informed as to the progress of the construction of the Holocaust Education Centre and memorial.
