Dorset's residents paid their respects at a number of special services on Holocaust Memorial Day.

The annual Holocaust Memorial Day event was held at the Corn Exchange in Dorchester on Friday, January 26 and was organised by South West Dorset Multicultural Network (SWDMN).

This year’s event explored the power of words and was attended by local councillors, schools and community organisations.

Mona Elkotory, Chairman of SWDMN, said: “Today we remember the millions who were killed under Nazi persecution.

“By remembering the past, we hope to learn lessons for the present and future.

“Today you remember the consequences of hatred when left unchallenged, we must stand up to hatred by breaking our silence and use the power of words."

Holocaust survivor Harry Grenville, who escaped from Nazi Germany to Britain as part of the Kindertransport, spoke at the event.

Harry’s family, who were Jewish, ran a successful packaging company in a town near Stuttgart before the Second World War – then it was taken over by a member of Hitler’s SS.

Following the Night of Broken Glass in November, 1938, when German and Austrian Nazis smashed 7,500 Jewish stores, Harry – born Heinz Greilsamer – and his sister Hannah were among 10,000 Jewish children evacuated from Germany to Britain where they lived with a foster family in Cornwall.

He later discovered that his parents and grandmother had been sent to an internment camp in Czechoslovakia before being sent to Auschwitz, where they were murdered.

At the event, Harry discussed how words have impacted his life during and after the war.

He explained how the phrase ‘Heil Hitler’ doesn’t sound very powerful until it is said by half a million supporters, and referenced Hermann Goering, the Nazi military leader, who said: “When I hear the word 'culture', that's when I reach for my revolver.”

Harry also explained how the word ‘ermordet’ which is German for murdered, had a powerful emotional impact when he saw it on his parent’s memorial plaque after the war.

He said: “What I hope to have shown you is that on a public and personal level words have tremendous power to affect a nation and an individual.”

Harry's talk was followed by a presentation on the power of propaganda by students at Thomas Hardye School and a reflection on the Holocaust through poetry by Sunninghill School.

There was also reflection on the 1994 Rwanda Genocide and Dorchester Town Crier Alistair Chisholm recited a poem in memory of the tragedy.

Mr Chisholm said: "I try to come every year, what is the point of history if we don't remember.

"If we forget and don't honour those that have suffered how can we move forward? I would say it is as important as commemorating Remembrance Sunday."

Meanwhile in Weymouth, residents paid their respects at a Holocaust Memorial Day service at Radipole Gardens. The service was led by Deputy Mayor Cllr Gill Taylor, Reverend Philip Elliot and Barbara Cohen.

A number of residents attended the service which is now in its 10th year and listened to prayers and readings in memory of the Holocaust.