Eugene Black was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust.

A Hungarian Jew from the town of Munkacs, Eugene – born Jeno Schwartz – was 16 when, in May 1944, he, his parents and two sisters were among 436,000 people rounded up and taken to Auschwitz extermination camp.

His parents Bela and Leni were gassed in Auschwitz Birkenau. Eugene’s sisters Paula and Jolan were transported to Gelsenkirchen in Germany and put in a slave labour camp at an oil refinery. In September 1944 the RAF bombed the refinery killing 151 people including his sisters. Another sister, Blanka, died in 1942.

Eugene found himself in Dora Mittelbau, slaving underground where Nazi technicians made V2 rockets. At war’s end he was freed from

Belsen death camp and linked up with the British Army as an interpreter. In Germany he met Annie Halliday, who was also in the army. They fell in love, came to England and were married. Eugene later worked for Marks & Spencer.

For a long time he was haunted by his past. He did not know his parents’ fate until 10 years after the war ended. Eventually he felt able to unburden himself and would visit Huddersfield on Holocaust Memorial Day to talk about his experiences.

Eugene travelled back to Germany in 2005 for the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Belsen. A year later he went to Auschwitz to pay his respects to his lost family.

“He was very reflective,” said his daughter, Lilian.

“He was glad he went back. In particular he saw a new Germany and was encouraged by young Germans who were very remorseful. He was very reassuring to them. He said: ‘You didn’t do it’. That really helped him.

“It reinforced his commitment to speak and that’s when he starting speaking in schools. He didn’t want anyone else to go through what he went through. His rationale for speaking out was to influence what happens today.

“When TV showed news of the Srebrenica camp in 1995 I remember my father weeping. He said: ‘That’s just what they did to us.’”

The Holocaust Heritage and Learning Centre for the North will contain an exhibition with a storyline on the rise of anti-Semitism, segregation, slave labour, the death camps and life afterwards for survivors. Testimonies by people like Eugene, who died last year, aged 88, are crucial.

“It will be a forum for people to have honest and open debate, and to learn,” said Lilian. “It’s going to be great for the north of England, and it’s in Huddersfield.”