Holocaust memorial

Ronen Zvulun/Reuters

A visitor at the Yad Vashem Memorial and Institute in Jerusalem looks at photographs of Jewish men, women and children who were killed by the Nazis during the years 1933-1945.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and Britain’s Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, marked Holocaust Day 2008 (Jan. 27) by attending a national ceremony in Liverpool which this year is a European Capital of Culture.

The west coast English city was chosen in November to hold the national commemorations for the Holocaust memorial day. Jan. 27 is the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland.

During the event, Archbishop Williams and Rabbi Sacks signed a Pledge Against Genocide. The pledge, written on a large mural on the ground outside the city’s Philharmonic Hall, encouraged individuals to advocate for an end to the systematic destruction of others in the 21st century.

More than 1,600 people, including Holocaust survivors, attended the commemoration service, which featured personal testimony from survivors and relatives, poetry, music and speeches.