Manchester social care charity The Fed has joined forces with the Association of Jewish Refugees to spearhead a pioneering project.
The AJR-funded 12-month pilot project, My Voice, will celebrate the lives that Holocaust refugees built after reaching the UK. It will be headed by Manchester-based Israeli Hila Kaye.
Volunteers have been matched with survivors and will record their stories and produce individual booklets for each.
Ms Kaye, 35, said: "Other testimony projects focus mostly on survivors' experiences of the Shoah. There is a scarcity of literature covering their lives as refugees in the UK. They had no or very little command of English or experience of the culture, no possessions and hardly any family or contacts. The project explores how they re-built their lives; made a living; and, in many cases, became very successful.
"But there is a sense of urgency because most of the people involved are well over 80 years old. What's more, just having someone hear your story gives each person a sense of their value in the community and the contributions they have made."
The Fed's Juliette Pearce, who will supervise Ms Kaye's work jointly with AJR, said: "We've dreamt of offering this kind of service for years; life stories are a fantastic resource for working with older people. It is hoped that the project will go nationwide."
The booklets are to be completed by autumn 2016.
For more information contact Hila Kaye on 07496168052 or hila@ajr.org.uk.
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