A MEMORIAL flame created by an East Tilbury stone masonry company in partnership with Thurrock Council will appear in a national art exhibition to mark 75 years of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Madstone LTD, which designed and installed the Holocaust Memorial in Palmers Rest Gardens, Grays, put together the successful submission chosen as one of 75 flames to represent each year since the liberation of Auschwitz. The flames will be displayed in an exhibition and unveiled at the UK ceremony for Holocaust Memorial Day in London on Monday, 27 January 2020.

More than 300 groups across the UK registered to take part in the nationwide competition judged by a panel including illustrator Nick Sharratt, Observer arts editor Sarah Donaldson, and chief executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust Olivia Marks-Woldman.

Moe Darr, director of Madstone LTD, said: "Our final design, made in conjunction with Thurrock Council who is our working partner for community projects, has a flame appearing to rise up against the night sky, with shoes symbolising people coming together towards the flame from near and far. We inscribed this year's theme 'Stand together 2020' in the sandstone tier and this is also gilded with gold leaf.

"Every year the council holds an annual ceremony at Palmers Rest Garden and members of the public and councillors lay small pebbles on the horizontal planter and top of walls at the end of the ceremony. Each tier on our artwork's base is designed to allow pebbles to be laid on the annual national Holocaust Day."

Olivia Marks-Woldman, chief executive of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, added: "It is heartening to see so many groups and communities come together and pay tribute to victims of the Holocaust in this way. Holocaust Memorial Day is an important opportunity for us all to learn from genocide, for a better future, and I'd urge everyone to get involved in activities for Holocaust Memorial Day 2020."

The 75 memorial flames project was part of a wider programme of events devised by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust to mark Holocaust Memorial Day and remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust.