Huddersfield residents and visitors will have the chance to explore powerful stories of rescue during the Holocaust at the exhibition Between Life and Death: Stories of Rescue during the Holocaust, running from 1 to 29 October 2026 at Holocaust Centre North, University of Huddersfield.
The exhibition, presented by the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity (ENRS) in partnership with Holocaust Centre North, honours those who risked imprisonment, deportation, or death to help persecuted Jews during the Second World War.
Featuring accounts from rescuers and survivors across fifteen European countries, the exhibition highlights the complex human relationships and difficult choices made under extreme wartime conditions. It also provides historical context to help visitors understand the local circumstances that shaped survival and rescue efforts.
Agnieszka Mazur-Olczak, project coordinator, explains that the exhibition remains strikingly relevant today despite its historical focus. She says it reveals both the darkest and most hopeful aspects of humanity through stories of those who struggled to survive and those who risked everything to save others.
Hannah Randall, Head of Learning at Holocaust Centre North, adds that the exhibition aligns with the centre’s mission to tell the Holocaust story through personal narratives. She notes that it includes rescue efforts that helped members of the local community in the North of England survive the Holocaust.
Among the featured stories are those of Eva Paddock and Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines, who arrived in Britain on a Kindertransport organised by Sir Nicholas Winton. The exhibition also highlights sisters Ida and Louise Cook from London, opera enthusiasts who smuggled valuables for Jewish refugees and helped them rebuild their lives in Britain. The sisters were recognised as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1964.
This exhibition is a joint initiative of the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity, the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, and the Silent Heroes Memorial Centre in Berlin. Since its debut at the European Commission headquarters in Brussels in 2018, it has toured over twenty cities worldwide, including recent showings at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
Between Life and Death: Stories of Rescue during the Holocaust will be open from 1 to 29 October 2026 at Holocaust Centre North, University of Huddersfield.
Opening hours are Monday to Thursday, 10am to 5pm, with last entry at 4:45pm. Admission is free, with donations welcome.
