Today is Holocaust Memorial Day – On this day in 1945 Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps. By this time, an estimated 2,000,000 persons, including 1,500,000 Jews, have been murdered there. The record of the Inniskilling Fusiliers is again reflected in today’s Roll. Nine names are recorded from 1917. Men from Belfast, Derry and Tyrone. Many more died in the day but the records available do not give their home address. Patrick Rusk from Drumbeg was killed flying a Spitfire in 1942. Gunner Fred McCarroll from Belfast died in 1944. Kemmel is a housing area in Randalstown built for WW1 vets. A photo taken OTD 1919 shows the impact of war on the original community on the Ypres salient.
