The city’s oldest established synagogue will host St Albans’ annual Holocaust Commemoration Service for the very first time.

The annual service will take place at St Albans United Synagogue in Oswald Road, at 7.30pm on Monday, January 27.

This is the day on which communities all over the UK and around the world come together to remember those murdered during the Holocaust, under Nazi persecution and in other subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur and most recently in Syria.

The Mayor of St Albans Annie Brewster, will attend the service alongside a number of district councillors, faith leaders and other local dignitaries. The theme for the 2014 Holocaust Memorial Day is "Journeys".

Karen Appleby, St Albans United Synagogue chairman said: "People are being asked to consider the journeys which those affected by genocide have been forced to make and what steps we can all make towards creating a safer better future."

The keynote speaker will be Kurt Wick, who, as a child, escaped from the Nazis by fleeing with his family from Vienna on the "Last Boat to Shanghai". Synagogue members Leslie Artman and Jeanette Grenby will also be speaking about journeys, with tragic and happier endings, made by their own families.

St Albans High School for Girls pupils Georgia Cashman and Kate James will also be revealing their impressions of a recent visit to Auschwitz. There will be further readings by other synagogue members old and young, including Nigel Marks, Ray Claret and teenagers Hannah and Josh Wise, as well as music from violinist Anna Brewer.

The city’s mayor, Annie Brewster, said: "I am looking forward to commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day at St Albans United Synagogue and learning how some of the journeys undertaken were experiences of persecution and terror whilst others actually became an important part of the process of rebuilding lives."

The reserve a place in advance contact the mayor’s office on 01727 819544 or e-mail mayoralty@stalbans.gov.uk.