The Muslim Jewish Forum of Greater Manchester
Established to develop the cultural and social ties between the Muslim and Jewish communities of Greater Manchester
3 November 2024
On Sunday 3 November the we organised our 150th event since our inception almost 20 years ago. This was a visit to Holocaust Centre North (“HCN”) in Huddersfield. HCN opened in 2018. It is the brainchild of Holocaust survivors mainly from West Yorkshire area.
The exhibition at HCN concentrates on 16 men and women who were all born into Jewish families in Central and Eastern Europe.
Their lives were changed forever by the German Nazi regime because their families and communities were destroyed. Some escaped to the UK as refugees just before World War 2 while others survived ghettos and concentration camps or were hidden by non-Jews who risked the lives of themselves and their families by sheltering Jews.
All originally came to different parts of the UK but settled and made new lives for themselves in West Yorkshire. The exhibition tells their stories to keep the memories of their families alive. It also helps people understand how persecution can lead to genocide.
One of the 16 people featured is Trude Silman. Her daughter, Judith Smith, told the MJF visitors Trude’s story.
Trude was born in Bratislava which is now the capital of Slovakia (then part of Czechoslovakia) in 1929. She had a happy start to her life as a cultural Jew living in Bratislava with her parents Adolf and Elsa Feldmann and her older siblings Paul and Charlotte.
When the Nazis began their occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1938 life changed dramatically for Jewish citizens. Adolf and Elsa decided to send Trude with her aunt and cousin to the UK for her protection. Trude was then just 9 years old. Initially she was a refuge in the Newcastle area but was unhappy there. Accordingly, she went to live with relatives in north London but subsequently they emigrated to the USA and Trude was then sent to Reigate, Surrey, as an evacuee. Finally, she completed her education at a boarding school in Cornwall.
It was very poignant when Judith stated that her mother could not remember saying goodbye to her parents as a 9-year-old. Unfortunately, she never saw them again. Later Trude ascertained that her father was murdered in Auschwitz and her mother was most likely shot or died whilst on a death march in Eastern Europe.
Despite such trauma in her early years Trude went on to study Biochemistry at Leeds University where she met her husband. They had two daughters together. She has never born any grudges and has also been thankful for the kindness people in her adopted homeland of the UK have always shown her. Trude is now 95 years old and still lives in Yorkshire.
Eliaou Balouka who is Jewish travelled all the way from London to attend his first MJF event. He said:
“Thank you for this wonderful day with your group, which has enabled me to meet some extraordinary people and visit Holocaust Centre North. I was able to see for myself the richness and diversity of your group. It also made me realise that it's thanks to groups like yours that we can gradually break down the stereotypes that we carry within us without even realising it.”
The Forum’s Muslim Co-Chair Mohammed Amin said:
“Like my previous visits to Holocaust museums elsewhere, this was a sombre day. HCN’s displays remind you that each person who perished in the Holocaust was an individual with a name, a family, and hopes for the future. HCN reminds you of where demonising ‘the other’ leads.”
In the group photo below:
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The Muslim Jewish Forum of Greater Manchester
Established to develop the cultural and social ties between the Muslim and Jewish Communities of Greater Manchester