Holocaust Centre North (Holocaust Survivors' Friendship Association)

Records of the Holocaust Survivors’ Friendship Association charity, publicly known as Holocaust Centre North.

HSFA originated in 1995, after a small group of social workers at the Leeds Jewish Welfare Board realised that many of their clients had something in common – they were Holocaust survivors. The LJWB approached Holocaust survivor Heinz Skyte to plan a mutual support group for fellow survivors and in 1996 HSFA was formally established. The HSFA’s activities soon grew from survivors sharing their experiences with each other over tea and coffee, to survivors regularly speaking about their lives and the impact of the Holocaust in schools and in public.

HSFA became a registered charity in 2000 and an incorporated charity in 2017. In 2018, HSFA opened an exhibition and learning centre on the University of Huddersfield campus, now called Holocaust Centre North. The Centre works across five strategic areas to tell a global history through local stories:

1) Permanent and temporary exhibitions

2) Growing archive of documentary evidence of the Holocaust

3) Programme of education and public learning activities, including archive residencies for contemporary artists

4) Research in partnership with the University of Huddersfield and the broader academic community

5) Community support and friendship

The Centre houses the HSFA archive, which contains organisational records of the charity (for instance governance, administration, correspondence, Holocaust Centre North activities) as well as 130+ sets of personal papers from Holocaust survivors, descendants and associates who were/are connected to the north of England. HSFA employed its first Archivist in late 2021 and cataloguing the archive began with the initiation of ‘Homeward Bound’ in January 2023, a three-year HSFA project to catalogue, digitise and increase the number of personal papers by 50%.

The archive is arranged in two sub-fonds:

HCN/1: Personal papers

HCN/2: Organisational records of HSFA and Holocaust Centre North

Please note there is graphic content throughout the collection, including potentially offensive language and potentially distressing images and descriptions of abuse, violence and death.

• Holocaust Survivors' Friendship Association
• University of Leeds
• Anysz, Barry
• Banasch, Vera
• Bergen, Dr Amanda
• Bernheim, Elisabeth
• Black, David
• Black, Eugene
• Black, Lilian
• Budzik, Josef
• Carter, Liesel
• Chillag, John
• Chillag, Lawrence
• Craggs, Dr Tracy
• Dalton, Hilary
• Dublon, George
• Erner, Saul
• Fairfax, Diane
• Fairfax, Richard
• Freund, Margit
• Gill, Andrew
• Gilmore, Lynda
• Gilmore, Robin
• Ginsburg, Ibi
• Ginsburg, Val
• Goldberg, Edith
• Goldberg, Trude
• Goldman, Nik
• Grant, Ruth
• Green, Michelle
• Hargreaves, Victoria
• Harrison, Brett
• Hartland, Jenny
• Hersh, Arek
• Hurst, Thea
• Hustler, Dennis
• Jackman, Gerald
• Jacoby, Kiks
• Jonkers, Claudia
• Jonkers, Hari
• Jorysz, Martin
• Kagan, Lady Margaret
• Kapel, Dr Martin
• Karmeinsky, Steve
• Katz, Fay
• Keczkes, Veronika
• Kennedy, Helena King, Ida
• Kingsley, Max
• Klipstein, Berta
• Knill, Iby
• Kolar, Paula
• Kornberg, Sir Hans
• Krips, Hans
• Kubie, Tom
• Leavor, Marianne
• Leavor, Rudi
• Mendel, Rachel
• Michaelis, Lorle
• Millet, Elly
• Pearson, Sue
• Pollock, Dr Griselda
• Randall, Hannah
• Reiman, Frank
• Ripton, Suzanne
• Rivlin, Danny
• Rogoff, Ruth
• Rosenberg, Yetta
• Rosner, Bob
• Rotenberg, Stella
• Samson, Klaus
• Schatzberger, Marc
• Schatzberger, Rosl
• Seifer, Gerda
• Shooman, Bernice
• Silman, Trude
• Simon, Gail
• Skyte, Heinz
• Skyte, Thea
• Smith, Amber, Wellesley-
• Spencer, Edith
• Spier, Agnes, Grunwald-
• Steinberg, Dr Hugo
• Sterne, Ernest
• Sterne, Ruth
• Studley, Eric
• Studley, Hilde
• Tirr, Erika

Open, subject to conditions. Please contact Holocaust Centre North's Collections team for more information about access and use.