Community
Holocaust museum to open its doors to refugees and asylum seekers
The Holocaust Centre North will run a series of monthly workshop to help combat isolation
September 22, 2025 12:44
The Holocaust Centre North will run a series of monthly workshop to help combat isolation
September 22, 2025 12:44A Holocaust museum, which was established by Holocaust survivors and refugees, is opening its doors to run workshops, particularly aimed at more recently arrived refugees and asylum seekers.
The Holocaust Centre North, which was founded by members of the Jewish community who settled in Leeds during and after the Holocaust, is organising the events in conjunction with the charities Immigration and Asylum Support Kirklees (IASK) and 6 Million +, which creates art projects connected to the Holocaust and other genocides.
Each workshop will focus on stories, objects or photographs from the Holocaust Centre North’s archives, which will share a refugee experience to inspire people to tell their own stories of loss and hope.
Holocaust Centre North’s head of communities Elanor Stannage said: “It is very important to us as an organisation that we bring communities together and help people feel safe, welcomed and cared for. We were founded by Holocaust survivors and refugees who spoke of their deep sense of isolation when they arrived here in the UK, and as it was through a creative heritage session that they began to share these stories together, we wish to continue this legacy and tradition.”
She added that the workshops were an invitation to people of all faiths who may be feeling isolated or who had recently arrived in Huddersfield. “We want to extend the solidarity and care initially experienced and felt by our survivors to other people.”
The first workshop will take place on September 25. Inspired by new beginnings – Rosh Hashanah and the start of the new school year – participants are invited to some along to taste seasonal food and share their own customs and traditions.
The second workshop, on Thursday October 30, is titled Connect and Create. Working with an artist, visitors will be able to create books inspired by how their lives are interwoven with others, across generations and communities, experiences and traditions.
Stannage said: “The aim [is] to share collective experiences of survival, hope and the rebuilding of lives, and, in doing so, reduce division and exclusion, particularly at this challenging time in the UK and the wider world.”
The Holocaust Centre North has had a permanent home on the University of Huddersfield campus since 2018. Its archive contains the collections of around 120 families who rebuilt their lives in the North of England following Nazi persecution and genocide.
The monthly creative sessions have been funded by Kirklees Council through a government funding programme.
Further workshop dates and themes will be announced via the Holocaust Centre website: holocaustcentrenorth.org.uk/events/.
All Workshops are completely free and available to book on the museum’s website: holocaustcentrenorth.org.uk/ or by phone: 01484 471939
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