‘Weeping sisters’ in poignant march
Poland involved in a European Union-funded Europe for Citizens project also took part in the procession.
The indoor events at the university – titled Beyond Words – were organised by 6 million+ Charitable Trust and supported by the university.
Groups from Reggio Emilia in Italy, Lublin in Poland and Subotica in Serbia took part together with Holocaust survivor Iby Knill and young people from Batley Girls’ High School.
They discussed the importance of remembering the wartime Holocaust and made connections with current events worldwide, including the refugee crisis across Europe.
Artists and trustees from 6 million+ Charitable Trust visited all three countries last year, taking with them a film of the Weeping Sisters procession from last year’s Holocaust Memorial Day event and sharing stories from survivors and refugees from West Yorkshire.
The day’s programme ended with a special performance of Pavel Haas’ String Quartet No3 at St Paul’s Hall performed by the German-based Meiningen Ensemble.
Haas was a significant Czech composer who was murdered at Auschwitz in 1944.
The event was held in the same week that Marsden-based Fettle Animation headed to New York for a screening of its award-winning animation series on the Holocaust.
The acclaimed series, called Children of the Holocaust, was shown at the headquarters of the United Nations, where producer Kath Shackleton and director Zane Whittingham also took part in a question and answer session.
The broadcast was one of 19 global screenings held as part of the UN’s Holocaust Remembrance Outreach Programme.
Children of the Holocaust will also be shown at 7pm on Saturday on BBC Four as a one-hour documentary to mark UK Holocaust Memorial Day.
The documentary series tells the stories from six real life Holocaust survivors in animation and in live action interviews.
The animation has also been adapted by Fettle team as awardwinning graphic novel.
Survivors of the Holocaust is published by Franklin Watts/ Hachette and is available in English, French, Italian and Dutch.
The book won the UK Schools Library Information book award as both overall winner and in the 12-plus category.