HUNDREDS turned out to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day across Gwent as today marked the 70th anniversary since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

A service held in Newport Cathedral took place where more than 150 people attended including Ron Jones, 97, a former prison of war in Auschwitz. The liberation of the largest concentration camp took place on January 27, 1945, and yesterday also marked 20 years since the genocide at Srebrenica in Bosnia.

Mr Jones from Bassaleg was a prisoner of war from October 1943 to January 1945. During the service he told of his time as a goalkeeper in the prison camp, where they played football on Sunday afternoons.

He said: "That's why I'm still alive today. It kept us fit."

"I was very fortunate as when I came home I was in a bad state but I had a wonderful wife Gwladys who nursed me. It was four or five years before I felt like a normal man again."

He said there are two others still alive from his team who he was imprisoned with.

The theme of this year's Holocaust Memorial Day is Keep the Memory Alive. The service was lead by the dean of the cathedral, the Very Rev Lister Tonge who said 'justice and openness for all is celebrated in this service."

There were performances from Bassaleg School choir and the Gwent Youth Brass Ensemble and readings from pupils at Newport High School and Duffryn High School.

Cllr Matthew Evans, mayor of Newport, said: "We are here today in Newport Cathedral on Holocaust Memorial Day to pay our respects and take time to remember the many people who died, the lives changed in the Holocaust, Natzi persecution and subsequent genocides.

"Discrimination needs to end we are nearer to this but it is still found today. Holocaust Memorial Day is an opportunity to start this process."

There were performances from Bassaleg School choir and the Gwent Youth Brass Ensemble and readings from pupils at Newport High School and Duffryn High School.

Monmouth MP David Davies signed the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Book of Commitment in the House of Commons. Mr Davies also visited Holocaust survivor Mady Gerard at her home in St Arvans, near Chepstow.

Mrs Gerard was arrested as a 14-year-old Jew in Hungary, she was deported to Auschwitz before being moved to the infamous Bergen-Belson camp where she remained until liberation on April 15, 1945.

More than 50 people attended an event held at Blackwood Miners' Institute where pupils from Newbridge School took part in readings including Samuel Baskerville who read his own poem 'The End is Too Late.'

Guests also visited the exhibition at the institute which comprised of artwork, poems, sculptures and photography focussing on the Holocaust. The exhibition is available until February 1.

More than 150 people took part in a service at St Gabriel's church, Cwmbran. The mayor of Torfaen, cllr Mandy Owen said: she “felt privileged and honoured to be a part of such a moving service and to be able to remember and keep the memory alive”.

“It was great to see so many children taking part and I would like to thank all those who organised the event and those who took part.”