Harrowing stories of Holocaust survivors from across the north of England are to be given a new home in Huddersfield.

Many survivors and their families now live or have lived in Yorkshire, including people who during the Second World War were refugees, in hiding, in ghettos, or in concentration and death camps, as well as those who escaped on the Kindertransport.

Now a new project will provide a space at Heritage Quay, within the University of Huddersfield, for their stories to be preserved, interpreted and explored and will create a lasting and permanent legacy for survivors and their families.

The Holocaust Survivors’ Friendship Association has been awarded more than £600,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for the project which will deliver a new Holocaust Heritage and Learning Centre, expected to attract at least 20,000 visitors a year.

Heritage Quay , University of Huddersfield
Heritage Quay , University of Huddersfield

The physical heritage of the survivors – testimonies, literature, artefacts and evidence of Nazi persecution – will be secured in perpetuity and explained and interpreted with new displays and exhibitions.

It will cover how it impacted not only on survivors but on their second and third generations; sons, daughters and their children, who are living with the personal heritage of their families being murdered and the trauma of those who survived.

WATCH: Holocaust memorial day in Huddersfield

Video Loading

School children will have opportunities to use creative and performing arts to interpret the stories held at the centre, and a new website will increase access to the centre and materials.

Survivor Suzanne Rappaport Ripton said: “For the children who will be studying at the centre we as survivors feel that it is important for them to find out what happened. We hope they will live in a better world, and education is the key.”

A prisoner of Bergen Belsen concentration camp seen delousing his clothes in the camp after it was liberated by the forces of the British 11th Armoured Division following the advance of the 2nd Army into Germany near the end of the Second World War.
A prisoner of Bergen Belsen concentration camp seen delousing his clothes in the camp after it was liberated by the forces of the British 11th Armoured Division following the advance of the 2nd Army into Germany near the end of the Second World War.

And Lilian Black, chair of the Holocaust Survivors’ Friendship Association, said: “The legacy of the Holocaust survivors in Yorkshire is now secure and will be made available to pupils, students and the wider community for teaching and learning.

"There has never been a more important time for us all to work together to combat all forms of persecution – our membership knows only too well where discrimination leads and it is their dearest wish to make sure our past is not our future.”

Prof Bob Cryan, CBE, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Huddersfield, said: “We look forward to the development of the Learning Centre here at the University to the benefit of children, young people and communities across the North of England and further afield, ensuring learning about the Holocaust for generations to come.”