Holocaust survivor to loan personal items for university heritage project
Heinz Skyte will give belongings to Huddersfield university for their new £1m Shoah learning centre
A Holocaust survivor is to loan the University of Huddersfield a number of personal possessions for its new £1 million Holocaust Heritage and Learning Centre.
Heinz Skyte, now in his 90s, narrowly escaped the atrocities of Kristallnacht (Night of the Broken Glass) in 1939, and has since described his memories of torch-wielding Nazis lining the streets, burning synagogues. His father was sent to Dachau.
One of the documents he has loaned the University is a letter from his wife’s headmaster, written in 1938, when she was a young girl, banning her from the school, solely based on her Jewish faith.
Another is a heartfelt note from his mother to her parents at the time they were sent to Theresienstadt concentration camp, where they died just two weeks later.
“To the visitors who come here, this is perhaps just history, but to me it is my life. It is very important for me to share some personal items with the centre, as they are evidence for the events of the Holocaust,” said Skyte.
“These items don’t just teach people of what happened, but of how genocide, in all its horror, quickly becomes acceptable to so many.”
The Centre is backed by Lottery funding and supported by the Pears Foundation, the Association of Jewish Refugees, the Holocaust Survivors Friendship Association and the University, with local firms also providing funding.
Simon Jackson, a past president of the Leeds Jewish Representative Council and current head of commercial property at Shulmans, a law firm which has helped pay for it, said recording the details of eye witnesses still with us was “vitally important”.
He added: “Whilst having a considerable amount of understanding and knowledge of events prior to getting involved in this project, working with the team has been an enlightening process.”
Emma King, the Centre’s director, said: “We must capture these accounts and preserve them, to ensure they are not lost forever. Meeting Heinz has been incredibly humbling and adds priceless detail to our archive collection.”
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
