‘The Gaps Between the Unforgettable’ video still by April Lin 林森, 2023. Archive material: Holocaust Centre North Archive, courtesy of the Black, Kubie, and Simon families

By KLTV Newsdesk –

Holocaust Centre North’s first group art exhibition brings survivor stories to life through powerful new work by leading contemporary artists

Holocaust Centre North – based at the University of Huddersfield – has announced the world premiere of Memorial Gestures, a groundbreaking group exhibition showcasing the culmination of a three-year creative arts residency.

The show marks the Centre’s first external group art exhibition and will run from 6 to 28 June 2025 at the historic Sunny Bank Mills in West Yorkshire.

The exhibition presents new works by fourteen contemporary artists who have spent the past three years delving into the Centre’s extensive archive.

Drawing on personal testimonies, historical documents, and artefacts donated by over 150 Holocaust survivors and their families who rebuilt their lives in the North of England, Memorial Gestures brings together deeply moving responses in a wide range of artistic media.

A Creative Journey Through History

Launched in 2022, the Memorial Gestures residency invited artists to engage with the Centre’s collections through workshops, conversations with survivors and their descendants, and close collaboration with historians and archivists.

The programme allowed artists to reflect on Holocaust memory and its place in today’s world through their creative disciplines.

Artists involved include Jordan Baseman, Laura Fisher, April Lin 林森, Maud Haya-Baviera, Irina Razumovskaya, Matt Smith, Ariane Schick, Tom Hastings, Rey Conquer, Hannah Machover, Laura Nathan, Chebo Roitter Pavez, Sierra Kaag, and Nathalie Olah.

Between them, they represent a broad diversity of backgrounds, nationalities, and lived experiences.

The resulting exhibition features works in textiles, video, installation, photography, ceramics, drawing, print, etching, translation, found objects, and text, creating a unique, intimate, and multifaceted reflection on memory, trauma, and survival.

‘Red Cross Blankets: MILLIONEN KÜSSE AUCH EUER BRUDER. Mama’ by Laura Fisher, 2023. Archive material: Holocaust Centre North Archive, courtesy of Michelle Green

Art That Tells Forgotten Stories

Among the highlights are large-scale woven blankets by Laura Fisher that reproduce personal messages from the Holocaust, including a final telegram sent to the family of Michelle Green by her grandmother in Vienna before she was killed in a concentration camp.

These deeply personal items are preserved in Holocaust Centre North’s archive.

Matt Smith’s ceramic tiles and photographic collages bring long-overdue attention to LGBT+ victims of the Holocaust, a topic often underrepresented in traditional Holocaust narratives.

Meanwhile, Sheffield-based artist Maud Haya-Baviera draws poignant links between her own family’s experience as political refugees and letters from Holocaust survivor Rachel Mendel, sent from 1930s Germany, pleading with her parents to escape.

Textile artist Laura Nathan, a granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, examines the lives of Jewish mill workers in Yorkshire, using fabric as a medium to explore intergenerational trauma, migration, and memory.

A Thoughtful and Timely Exhibition

Curated by Holocaust Centre North’s Paula Kolar, the exhibition is generously supported by The Ernest Hecht Charitable Foundation, Arts Council England, The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and the Henry Moore Foundation.

Kolar shared the intention behind the exhibition: “At Holocaust Centre North, we aim to humanise a history that contains what most of us can scarcely imagine, from unbearable loss, pain, and cruelty to courageous survival, through the preservation of personal testimonies and documents.

“The artists have responded to these complex and often unfathomable narratives without overlooking the details that make each story distinct, nor denying Holocaust survivors the universally relatable dimensions of life.

“Through colour, sound, texture, composition, repetition, and gesture, their works express what facts alone cannot.

“This allows audiences to encounter Holocaust histories in an emotionally resonant way, but also gives material form to memory, placing viewers in direct dialogue with the past and prompting conversations that bridge then and now.

“At the heart of this exhibition are questions of representation and responsibility… I believe it is vital that we ask ourselves not only what we remember and how, but also to what end.

“In doing so, we build greater resilience against contemporary politics of dehumanisation and create space for a culture of solidarity”.

Memory That Lives On

Alessandro Bucci, Director of Holocaust Centre North, added: “Memorial Gestures is the outcome of our ambitious residency programme –our response to some of the most pressing questions facing Holocaust memory today, as we move further from living memory: such as how do we continue to remember the Holocaust with depth and relevance?

“How do we engage audiences with original materials while also honouring what was lost, destroyed, stolen, or never took an archivable form?

“And how do we foster a responsible culture of care when working with stories of persecution, forced displacement, murder, and loss – as well as trauma, intergenerational memory, and the complex relationships between local histories and global events?

“These questions are not fixed, nor are the answers exhaustive – but they have offered a framework for the artists involved, many of whom carry Holocaust histories in their own families, to explore and respond to this story on their own terms.

“In doing so, Memorial Gestures – both the residency and this subsequent exhibition – contributes to an ongoing and vital conversation about the role of memory in the present day – how we might keep it alive, resonant, and relevant for generations to come.

“I am very proud that we, at Holocaust Centre North, have created this programme to keep those questions and conversations going”.

‘Red Cross Blankets: To wish you a prosperous life’ by Laura Fisher, Installation shot at Dai 大 Hall, Huddersfield 2023. Archive material: Holocaust Centre North Archive, courtesy of the Kubie family

A Broader Conversation

In addition to the visual art on display, the exhibition includes work by writers and translators Tom Hastings, Rey Conquer, Sierra Kaag, and Nathalie Olah, who were commissioned by the Centre to share works in progress from forthcoming book-length projects.

Throughout the exhibition’s run, Holocaust Centre North will host a series of events, talks, and tours at Sunny Bank Mills, aimed at engaging a wide range of audiences with the intersecting narratives of migration, trauma, survival, persecution, and resilience.

Visit the Exhibition

Memorial Gestures runs from Friday 6 June to Saturday 28 June 2025 at The 1912 Mill, Sunny Bank Mills, Farsley, Pudsey, West Yorkshire.

This powerful and timely exhibition offers a rare opportunity to experience Holocaust history through the eyes of contemporary artists – and to reflect on the enduring relevance of memory in an increasingly complex world.