Government advisors are to call for the annual UK Holocaust memorial day to be ended because it is too exclusive and can be offensive to minorities other than Jews, a British newspaper said.

A group of seven committees, put together by prime minister Tony Blair to tackle extremism, will propose that Holocaust memorial day should be replaced with a more inclusive “Genocide day”, according to the Sunday Times.

The news came less than a week after a new Holocaust Memorial Day Trust was launched with the full backing of the Home Office, and has attracted disapproval from Jewish communal figures.

Holocaust memorial day has been held annually since 2001 on 27 January, the day the Russians liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945. It commemorates the murder of six million Jews y the Nazis during the second world war.

Following the success of this year’s events, which commemorated the 60th anniversary of the liberation and the end of the second world war, the Home Office passed responsibility for the memorials to the new trust.

Wrong signals

One committee member told the Times that the current Holocaust memorial day has created an image that “western lives have more value than non-western lives”.

The individual, who holds a position on an all-Muslim committee, said the annual commemorations are off putting and offensive to Muslims who feel ignored.

“The very name Holocaust Memorial Day sounds too exclusive to many young Muslims,” the committee member said. “It sends out the wrong signals, that the lives of one people are to be remembered more than others. It’s a grievance that extremists are able to exploit.”

The committees, who are due to report back to the prime minister next week, are expected to call for the replacement Genocide day to commemorate the mass deaths of peoples of all faiths, including Muslims in Bosnia and Chechnya.

Important commemoration

According to a spokesman for the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, this day "provides a national mark of respect for all victims of Nazi persecution and demonstrate understanding with all those who still suffer its consequences."

"Six million Jews were murdered in the defining genocide of the twentieth century, along with millions of Gypsies, Poles, homosexuals and other groups targeted by the Nazis for persecution, slave labour and in many cases death. As such it raises awareness and understanding of the events of the Holocaust as a continuing issue of fundamental importance for all humanity," the spokesman added.

"HMD attempts to ensure that the horrendous crimes, racism and victimisation committed during the Holocaust are neither forgotten nor repeated, whether in Europe or elsewhere in the world and restate the continuing need for vigilance in light of the troubling repetition of human tragedies in the world today."

Jewish communal leaders have also stressed the importance of singling the Holocaust for specific commemoration.

“The very name Holocaust Memorial Day sounds too exclusive to many young Muslims, it sends out the wrong signals, that the lives of one people are to be remembered more than others. It’s a grievance that extremists are able to exploit A committee member

Mike Whine, a director of the British Board of Deputies, told the Sunday Times: “Of course we will oppose this move. The whole point is to remember the darkest day of modern history.”

Jewish MP Louise Ellman, who represents the Liverpool Riverside constituency and is a Holocaust Memorial trustee, echoed Whine’s sentiments, expressing concern that the Muslim groups are belittling the Holocaust.

“These Muslim groups should stop trying to evade the enormity of the Holocaust,” Ellman said.

A Home Office spokesman said the government will consider the proposals for a Genocide day but stressed that the Holocaust is seen as a defining tragedy in European history.

The controversy came as Israel is preparing to urge the United Nations to establish an international Holocaust memorial day.

Many European countries already hold Holocaust memorial day commemorations on 27 January, and Israeli Deputy U.N. Ambassador Daniel Carmon said he hopes the day will become universal.