Almost a million disabled people were persecuted, sterilised or killed by Hitler's regime.

At Nottingham's Holocaust Centre yesterday, those victims were remembered in an event entitled Disability and the Holocaust: We Shall Not Forget.

Members of the Nottinghamshire Disabled People's Movement were joined by celebrities, Holocaust survivors and members of the public from as far afield as Paris.

Plans for a permanent sculpture were revealed and actress Kim Tserkezie, from CBBC's Balamory, and artist Alison Lapper unveiled a memorial plaque dedicating a rose to the victims.

Mrs Tserkezie said: "It has always saddened me that disabled people's experiences of the Holocaust have gone largely untold.

"We owe it to all those people who were persecuted, forcibly sterilised, or murdered, to remember them and pay tribute to them.

"We must not forget their experiences which are not only part of our past, but are important in helping us understand the prejudices and discrimination we as disabled people experience today."

Ms Lapper said: "It has been an absolutely amazing day. I think this sort of thing should now happen all over the country. It is so important that these people have finally been put on the map."

David Brown, spokesman for The Holocaust Centre, said: "It has gone extremely well, with people attending from all over. It has been a very moving event."

Film director Liz Crow led a debate and Holocaust survivor Hans Cohn, 85, from London, made a speech.

Dr Stephen Smith, director of the centre, in Newark, said: "While discrimination against those with disability is outlawed in our society, we must work together to counter the prejudice that remains.

"Hitler's propaganda minister suffered from polio, and yet he still drove a media machine that contributed to the persecution of a million deaf and disabled people."