A £1.5 million package to safeguard the memories of Holocaust survivors for future generations has been announced by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles.
March 27, 2015 11:29
ByAnonymous, Anonymous
A £1.5 million package to safeguard the memories of Holocaust survivors for future generations has been announced by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles.
The initiative includes a £1 million project to record and digitally preserve the stories of Holocaust survivors who have not yet given their testimony.
A £110,000 emergency pilot programme is to be launched to capture the memories of the most elderly survivors and liberators before the summer.
The Holocaust Centre, in Nottinghamshire, is to be given £300,000 to enable it to complete its interactive recording of 10 survivors answering 900 questions. The completed recordings will allow viewers to "interview" the filmed survivors and receive a tailored response.
There will also be a £100,000 boost for the translation and digitisation of written testimony held in the Holocaust archive at the Wiener Library in London.
Mr Pickles also announced a digital scanning project that will create 3D, CGI models of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, ahead of the 70th anniversary of the camp's liberation by the British Army on 15 April 1945.
The models will be used in the new UK Learning Centre which will sit alongside the national Holocaust Memorial announced by the Prime Minister in January.
The £1.5 million pledged comes in addition to £50 million committed by the three main political parties to kick off fundraising for the creation of the National Memorial, learning centre and education endowment fund - key recommendations of the Holocaust Commission set up by Prime Minister David Cameron.
Mr Pickles made the announcement at a ceremony in Whitehall honouring British Holocaust heroes.
The families of prisoners of war William Fisher, Edwin Hambling and Bill Keeble were presented with hero of the Holocaust medals by Mr Pickles for their part in rescuing a Jewish girl in Nazi-occupied Poland.
The three Britons along with seven other British POWs smuggled Lithuanian-born Sara Rigler, 15, into the Gross Golmkau camp after she escaped from a death march outside Danzig.
All 10 PoWs are listed as Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem in Israel.
At the ceremony, at the Foreign Office, Mr Pickles said: "In the midst of the darkest days of human history, William Fisher, Edwin Hambling and Bill Keeble and their fellow prisoners of war, were shining beacons of hope.
“At a great risk to themselves they showcased the very best of British values – tolerance, respect and compassion – to save the life of a stranger.
“Their greatest legacy is the long and full life that Sara Rigler has enjoyed but I hope that this medal will help ensure that their acts of bravery, in risking their lives for others, will never be forgotten.”
An international project enabling the restoration of a Torah scroll from Filipów in Poland that was saved from the Nazis was also launched,
The scroll, discovered last year by Warsaw University students, had been given to a Polish shepherd by a rabbi who was about to be deported to the Treblinka death camp.
Jonny Daniels, executive director and founder of charity From the Depths, who are overseeing the restoration, said: "It is an honour to start the process of renewing this holy Torah scroll, together with the British government."
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: “We were delighted to be part of such a special event - this Torah would have been treasured at the heart of the Jewish community in Filipów before the Holocaust and it is incredibly poignant that it is being restored in such a beautiful and symbolic way.
“We are also particularly proud that our initiative to honour British heroes of the Holocaust has meant government recognition for the courageous acts of so many.”
She welcomed the funding pledge on recording survivors' testimony.
“In the course of our educational work across the UK, we are acutely aware that Holocaust survivors will not be able to share their stories forever and this funding, to help preserve their powerful testimony for the future, could provide a hugely significant tool in educating the next generation about the Holocaust,” she said.
