Lottery cash backs Shoah heritage centre in north

The Leeds-based Holocaust Survivors' Friendship Association has won initial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund for a northern Holocaust heritage and learning centre.

Development funding of £59,700 has been awarded to help the HSFA progress its plans. The idea is to apply for a full grant of £520,000 for the project at a later date.

The new centre will be located in Heritage Quay at the University of Huddersfield. It will allow communities, teachers, students and schoolchildren to learn about the Shoah through photographs, digital testimonies, records of persecution and family letters. The association has been collecting digital testimony and thousands of photographs.

HSFA chair, Lilian Black, sees the Lottery support as an endorsement of its work. "The centre is an exciting investment in all of our futures and reflects British values," she said. "It is so important that we learn the lessons of the Holocaust to ensure our past does not become our future.

"The centre will enable academic exchanges, student and community workshops, teacher education and touring exhibitions." For the university, Professor Tim Thornton said: "The opportunities for teaching, learning and research are enormous."