STUDENTS at Gawthorpe High School in Padiham were moved to tears when they heard a teacher give an account of the Nazi death camps in Germany.

Today is the first Holocaust Memorial Day, but because it is a weekend the school decided to organise its remembrance events over the week.

The 758-pupil school held a week of 30-minute special assemblies where students and teachers focused on the horror of the Nazi assassination of six million Jews including 1.5million children.

Head of English Rosemary Massam said: "Education Secretary David Blunkett sent materials for schools use in activities to mark the day and we used those as the basis for assemblies.

"Assemblies covered a different aspects of the holocaust. If we are to ensure this is never allowed to happen again we need to make sure people never forget exactly what happened."

Head of drama Maria Toy recited a monologue giving an image of a camp survivor ,which brought tears to the eyes of year nine students.

Year seven pupils put on a mini-drama with excerpts from the Diary of Anne Frank, and year ten students read poems written by survivors.

Head of history Sue Finnerty gave a presentation on life in the Warsaw ghettos. She also organised a display from the Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre.

Mrs Massam added: "It was quite heart-rending and moving. Some students knew of the Holocaust but not of the true horror."