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Encountering Survival

Linda O Keeffe and Louise K Wilson

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Our Collection

We are a living archive. We have a growing collection of material relating to the history of the Holocaust Centre North as well as Holocaust refugees and survivors who made the North of England their home.

From cocktail shakers to correspondence, telegrams to travel documents, photographs to filmed testimonies, we preserve and safeguard these individual stories and rare materials for future generations and make them available for education and research.

What do we collect?

The archive comprises organisational and personal papers, covering the 1880s to the present day. We actively collect physical and digital records, including:

  • Material up to the end of the Second World War
  • Records which tell the story of survivors and refugees post-war, e.g., naturalisation or compensation papers
  • Recorded testimonies (video and audio)
  • Original documents, e.g., passports, certificates, ID papers
  • Correspondence, e.g., letters and postcards
  • Photographs
  • Objects – the toys, household items and mementoes on display really help bring the history to life

Research strengths

The collections are a rich resource for educators, creative practitioners, and researchers of Holocaust history. Collection themes include: 

  • Jewish life in pre-war Europe
  • Impact of the Nuremberg Laws
  • Emigration attempts, migration routes
  • Kindertransport and child refugees
  • Internment as enemy aliens in Britain
  • Ghetto and camp experiences, slave labour
  • Liberation and displacement
  • Making a new life in the North of England
  • Culture shock and assimilation
  • Faith and identity
  • Intergenerational relationships and trauma
  • Memorialisation, post-memory
Letter to Huddersfield journalist Arnold Brook, from his German friend Walter Alexy, 1936
A glass cocktail shaker with matching glasses. Painted with musical motifs like a pianist and dancers in red and black.
Cocktail shaker and glasses given to Iby Knill as a wedding present in 1946. With kind permission of the family of Iby Knill – Chris Knill and Pauline Kinch
Postcard from Josef Moddel, Shanghai, to S. Rivlin, Leeds, 1942. Courtesy of D. Rivlin
Sofie Fröhlich’s ID card stamped ‘Ghettoised 6 July 1942’. Courtesy of the Fröhlich family 
Page from Dr Hugo Steinberg’s memoir ‘My experiences in Germany’, 1944. Courtesy of Marian Meller and her son Mark Cordingley
Letter to ‘Dear Lilly!’ with ‘warmest wishes and kisses’ from her aunt and uncle in Vienna, 1939. Courtesy of Michelle Green
Conrad Leser’s internment photo, Quebec, Canada, 1940. Courtesy of Joanna Leser and family
Otto Kubie’s ‘J’ stamped passport, 1938. Courtesy of the Kubie family
Gilly Rawson as a young girl, 1930s. Courtesy of the Rawson family
Stolperstein ‘stumbling stone’ in memory of Alfred Levy, 2006. Courtesy of Judith Rhodes
Swimming certificate awarded to 9-year-old Trude in 1939. Courtesy of Trude Silman and family
Red Cross letter from Julius and Marie Veith, Amsterdam, to Mrs Jenny Wolff, London, 1943. Courtesy of Jenny Hartland
Spice box used during the Havdalah ceremony, brought by Marianne Leavor from Germany in 1939. Courtesy of the Leavor family

Access

We welcome visitors and researchers to view the archive by appointment only. For all enquiries, contact collections@hud.ac.uk.

Catalogue

We are embarking on an exciting phase of developing our collections through preservation, cataloguing, and digitisation so that they will be more accessible for different audiences. Descriptions for 70 of our personal paper collections are available via our online catalogue. Watch this space for more updates.

Donate a collection

We are actively seeking new donations of archive material. Sometimes just one letter or a small photograph can tell an unknown story. Please contact us for a chat if you’re looking for a suitable permanent home for your collection and/or would allow us temporary access to carefully digitise it.

Sponsor a box

Would you like to support our meticulous work to safeguard these collections for future generations? All the archive material we receive needs to be carefully preserved and housed to ensure its longevity. Your donations really make a difference to how many pieces of history we can care for.

Can you help safeguard our collection?

No matter the size, your donation will make sure the Holocaust is never forgotten.

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