AS THE world commemorates the 75th anniversary of the Holocaust, first minister Mark Drakeford has shared with the people of Wales a message of unity and diversity.

The first minister will join Holocaust survivor Dr Martin Stern in Cardiff this morning (Monday) for a service of remembrance, 75 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Six million people from Europe's Jewish population were murdered during the Holocaust – a mass programme of enslavement, imprisonment, and genocide carried out during the Second World War by the Nazis and their collaborators, who also targeted political prisoners, ethnic minorities, homosexuals, the disabled, and the work-shy.

“The Holocaust is a shameful event in history, which we must remember forever," Mr Drakeford said in a statement. "It happened, like all genocides before and since, because people’s differences were used to whip up suspicion and drive divisions through society.

“We must stand together. We must celebrate our differences. And we must believe there is more that unites us than drives us apart. It’s the only way to make sure these sorry events stay exactly where they belong – in the history books.”

The Cardiff service takes place alongside other acts of remembrance, in the UK and around the world, for the millions of people who suffered and died at the hands of the Nazis, as well as the victims of more recent genocides around the world.

Dr Stern will visit schools, prisons, and community organisations throughout South Wales this week as part of his work to promote education and tolerance.

Having escaped to the Netherlands from Germany before the war, Dr Stern’s mother died shortly after giving birth to his younger sister, Erica. His Jewish father died in Buchenwald concentration camp, after spending time in Auschwitz.

In Amsterdam, Dr Stern and his sister were taken in by Dutch families. Dr Stern’s teacher had denied his attendance at school when soldiers came looking for him, but as an innocent five-year-old, he reached his hand up in the air and said: "But I am here."

Dr Stern and his sister were transported to the walled ghetto of Theresienstadt (in what is now the Czech Republic). The ghetto would be the final destination for many who were sent there, but the two siblings survived to see the fall of the Nazis.

The children were later united with their aunt, who had found refuge in the UK, and Dr Stern has lived here ever since. He later became an immunologist and an expert in asthma.