MPs to mark day in 1942 when the Commons finally recognised the Holocaust

Child survivors at the Auschwitz death camp, liberated by the Red Army in January 1945. Photograph: Universal Images Group/Getty Images

It was the moment when parliament first formally recognised the appalling fate of the Jewish people at the hands of the Nazis – and MPs rose from their seats in solemn silence.

The date was 17 December 1942 and evidence of the deportation of Jews from occupied countries to eastern Europe was mounting by the day.