EAST Renfrewshire residents and leaders are marking International Holocaust Memorial Day today.

MP Kirsten Oswald led tributes last week during a House of Commons debate and praised Giffnock resident Ingrid Wuga, who was recently awarded a British Empire Medal for services to Holocaust education and awareness.

Ingrid escaped from Hitler's Germany at the age of 15 and has supported the Holocaust Education Trust's outreach programme, providing testimony to more than 5,000 adults and children in the past five years.

Local residents including Danielle Bett and Kirsty Robson have also been recognised for their work on Holocaust education.

Seventy-five years ago today, more than 7,000 prisoners at Auschwitz, including 700 children, were liberated by the Soviet army.

Ms Oswald spoke of Jane Haining in her Commons debate, a missionery from Dunscore in Dumfriesshire. She stayed with her pupils at a school in Budapest during the Second World War and refused for them to be taken to Auschwitz without her.

She wrote: “If these children need me in days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in days of darkness?” Jane died in Auschwitz in July 1944.

This year's Holocaust Memorial Day, the 15th, also carries the theme "stand together".

Read more: Scotland's last Auschwitz survivor: 'Love has helped me live'

Ms Oswald said: "Our Scotland must be for people of all faiths and none, a home for all of us. Holocaust Memorial Day is a stark reminder that we must challenge anti-semitism wherever we see it, standing together, standing up against hate and speaking out.

“None of us can imagine the experience of Jane Haining, who chose to stay in harm’s way rather than give in to fear. Few of us can even imagine what it was like for 15-year-old Ingrid, exiled from her home, family and community.

“That is why the work of groups like the Holocaust Educational Trust is so important and why it is so encouraging to see young women, such as Danielle and Kirsty taking this forward to ensure we have a full understanding of the horror of the Holocaust and how it came about."