What is the best age to introduce young people to the Holocaust? This is a question which divides both educators and parents. But one Holocaust museum says it has found a way to teach this period of history to younger audiences in a “gentler and more accessible” way.

This summer, Holocaust Centre North will be conveying the stories of Holocaust survivors and refugees, which are central to the museum’s collection, using arts, crafts, storytelling and object-handling.

Visitors will also be able to meet survivors, including Liesel Carter, who says: “Mine isn’t a horror story. Mine’s happy, mine’s a happy story.” Born in Germany, Liesel travelled alone at just four years old across Europe to Britain as a refugee to escape the Nazis. She lost her father and many other members of her family, but she was reunited with her mother in the UK in 1940 after the latter had managed to escape on a work visa. Liesel never lived with her mother again but instead made a new life with her foster family in Leeds.

The Holocaust Centre North runs a programme which enables visitors to meet Holocaust survivors and refugees who escaped to the north of England (Photo: Holocaust Centre North)

Head of learning Hannah Randall said: “By introducing young visitors to inspiring survivors like Liesel and enabling them to engage with other such personal stories of loss, hope and survival through creative activities, Holocaust Centre North brings this traumatic piece of history to life in a gentler and more accessible way.”

She said that the encounters with Holocaust survivors and refuges would enable children “to meet and chat with them up close and informally, something that they may not get the chance to do for very much longer as we lose more and more of those who witnessed the Holocaust first hand”.

She added: “Our Family Learning Days are for families with children of all ages to come and engage with our exhibition and archive in an age-appropriate way. We aim to make history fun by running lots of activities for children to practise their detective skills, as well as getting creative with arts and crafts, badge-making and cyanotype prints.”

The Holocaust Centre North uses storytelling as a way to introduce some of the themes of the Holocaust to children (Photo: Holocaust Centre North)

Holocaust Centre North, based at the University of Huddersfield, provides Holocaust education by sharing over 120 local stories and materials from survivors and refugees who rebuilt their lives in the north of England after escaping or surviving Nazi persecution.

The Centre is open Monday to Thursday during the summer holidays from 10am – 5pm. Both Family Days on August 7and 14 are free and run from 11am to 3pm. All activities are drop in and will run throughout both days.

For more information on Holocaust Centre North, click here