HOLOCAUST survivor Eugene Black will light a candle at a Leeds event to remember all those who lost their lives in the genocide.

Mr Black, from Pool-in-Wharfedale will be joined by his daughter Lilian Black and fellow survivor Iby Knill at Leeds Town Hall to light a candle created by world-renowned artist Sir Anish Kapoor.

The event, on Sunday, January 25, will be part of a national initiative which will see 70 specially designed candles lit at Holocaust Memorial Day events across the UK.

A number of events will be held in Leeds to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27, which this year marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Mr Black was 16 when he was sent to Auschwitz, where he realised he was no longer regarded as a human being. Separated from his parents and sisters, who he would never see again, he was shifted between camps and forced to work as a slave labourer, until he was finally freed from Bergen Belsen by the British.

For 50 years Mr Black, who was born in Czechoslovakia, would not talk about the horrors he had seen and been subjected to - but since then he has regularly given talks at schools and other organisations in a bid to ensure that the past cannot be forgotten.

He has visited Germany and Poland on a number of occasions in recent years and has had a tree dedicated to him in the German town of Nordhausen - one of 53 which were planted to honour survivors of the Dora Mittelbau camp.

Sunday's civic remembrance event at 2pm will be hosted by the Lord Mayor of Leeds Coun David Congreve. Included in this year’s programme will be an exhibition by Pyramid of Arts, a theatre performance by young people from Escape Contemporary Youth Theatre. A traditional Hebrew memorial prayer will be sung by the chairman of Bradford Synagogue, Rudi Leavor.

Coun David Congreve said: "As part of commemorations marking Holocaust Memorial Day a range of events will be taking place in Leeds. This includes a civic remembrance event at Leeds Town Hall on 25 January, which is free and open to everyone, and will provide the opportunity for people to come together and remember those people who were both victims and survivors of this truly terrible event.

"With 2015 also being the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, it is more important than ever to keep the memory of what happened in the Holocaust alive for future generations."

The University of Leeds’ German department, in partnership with the National Holocaust Centre (UK) and the South African Holocaust and Genocide Foundation are also presenting an exhibition called Germany’s Confrontation with the Holocaust in a Global Context. Held at Leeds Town Hall from Monday, January 19 to Sunday, January 25, and at the University of Leeds from Monday, January 26 to February 3, the touring exhibition considers how Germany has confronted the Holocaust from 1945 to the present