Memorials across Sussex will be held at the end of this month to mark the first Holocaust Memorial Day.

Church services and other events will be staged on Saturday 27 January to remember the millions of Jews killed in the Nazi death camps.

The Sussex Centre for German Jewish Studies will hold an event at Sussex University, sponsored by the Association of Jewish Refugees.

It will include talks, film shows and discussion groups and guest speakers, including Sue Reed, director of the TV documentary "Children Who Created Hitler?"

In Worthing, a community service will take place at the Tabernacle Church, Chapel Road, starting at 1pm, where organisers hope a holocaust survivor will tell of their experiences.

The Local Government Association has issued local councils with guidelines on how to mark the day and schools have been issued with information packs to ensure children are taught the horrors of the death camps.

But the Government says the day is not just to remember the victims of crimes against humanity committed by Nazi Germany, but to reflect on crimes still being committed today around the world.

A national ceremony will be held in London and will be televised live by the BBC.

The date of January 27 was chosen because it marks the day the Auschwitz death camp was liberated by Allied forces. More than one million Jews were killed at Auschwitz, the most notorious of the camps.

To find out more about Holocaust Day visit www.holocaustmemorialday.gov.uk