A Lottery-funded arts project to document Holocaust survivors in Salford is seeking some 50 volunteers to help archive their stories.
The project, by Charedi artist Chava Rosenzweig, has won £20,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to document the lives of residents of Salford's Orthodox Beenstock Care Home. Around 25 of its 34 residents are Holocaust survivors.
Volunteers are to be trained by the North West Sound Archive to document residents' stories, while 10 personal histories will be published in a series of books combined with professional portrait photography which is already underway. A local historian will help to verify documented stories and produce an exhibition in conjunction with the Manchester Jewish and Salford museums. A recipe book of residents' favourite foods will preserve Jewish cookery from pre-war Europe.
Pupils from Manchester Jewish Grammar, King David's Yavneh and seminary students are already signing up as volunteers, but Mrs Rosenzweig is hoping the project will attract cross-communal interest from all ages.
"A lot of our youngsters have lost an identity of their own histories. It's important to realise how much the Second World War generation worked to get our community where it is today. It will also help the non-Jewish community have a better understanding of how Jewish people were involved in building Manchester by documenting how survivors rebuilt their lives by building industries like textiles."
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