Today is Holocaust Memorial Day, a day which marks the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

It is a time to remember the millions of people murdered during the Holocaust, under Nazi persecution and in the genocides which followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

And to commemorate the event an evocative musical work by a Devon composer will take be performed tomorrow night (Saturday) at Buckfast Abbey.

Shoah, a Hebrew word meaning catastrophe or devastation, is the word used to describe the Holocaust when six million European Jews and millions of others were murdered by the Nazis during the Second World War.

It is also the title of a work by Devon composer, Philip Arkwright, former Organist and Master of the Music at the Abbey.

The Brent Singers will be performing the poignant Holocaust Cantata, Shoah, at 7.30pm under the direction of Matthew Searles, and with Philip himself accompanying the work on the Abbey’s Ruffatti organ.

Tickets are available from www.buckfast.org.uk/boxoffice and 75 per cent of the proceeds will be donated to the Holocaust Educational Trust.