IT'S set to be a work of art with a poignant message.

Hundreds of schoolchildren and students across Huddersfield have been challenged to collect 6 million buttons for a new work for the public art gallery.

Every button will represent one of the people killed in the Holocaust.

The buttons will be laid out in the art gallery and used to illustrate the sheer industrial scale of the Holocaust and the continued oppression of minorities.

The project is being run by Kirklees Council's Community History Service for next year's Holocaust Memorial Day.

Students from 12 Kirklees secondary schools, Huddersfield New College and Greenhead College will be working with Community History Service staff and Leeds-based artist Antonia Stowe.

Kim Strickson, of the Community History Service, said: "Since the 1940s, genocide has continued to stalk our world.

"During this project, young people will be asked to consider the reasons why and to learn from people who have lived through such experiences and continue to be hopeful of a better future."

She said buttons were particularly appropriate because they came in all shapes, sizes and colours - just like people.

Ms Strickson added: "They also remind us of the clothes removed from death camp victims.

"It was not only Jews who died from starvation, disease and gas chambers in the camps. Well over 1m others died, political opponents, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, the disabled, gypsies and people from other racial groups."

Six people who survived the Holocaust, together with six refugees from places as far apart as Bhutan and Bosnia, will share their experiences with each other and the schools in the project.

They will be working with film- maker Chris Squire and writer Adam Strickson to create a DVD.

The film will be part of the installation in the art gallery and the DVD will be available for schools to use.

* The public is being asked to help in the collection of the buttons, although it is stressed that buttons should not be bought specially.

* Buttons of any shape, size, colour and material can be handed over to staff at any Kirklees museum, Huddersfield Art Gallery, Huddersfield Town Hall or Dewsbury Town Hall between September 1 and December 15.

* They will be collected in large plastic see-through tubes. The number of buttons being contributed must be clearly indicated.

* Anyone wanting information about the Holocaust Memorial Day event being held in Huddersfield Town Hall on Wednesday January 25 should leave contact details at any button collection point.