Holocaust exhibition for children

A new exhibition about the Holocaust designed for children as young as nine was announced by Schools Secretary Ed Balls.

The permanent exhibition at the Holocaust Centre near Laxton in Nottinghamshire will open in September and primary school children will be able to talk to survivors of the concentration camps. Mr Balls MP, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, toured the centre, visiting the nine rooms where the exhibition will go on display.

He said: "I think it is a really brilliant centre and I am really looking forward to coming back and seeing the exhibition open. This is really relevant to our society today - whether we have the British National Party and racism in our society or whether we have genocide in parts of Africa. It's important to educate young people that the strength of our society and the values we hold will prevent the repetition of these events."

During his visit Mr Balls met Bela Rosenthal, one of about 50 Holocaust survivors who will volunteer to speak to children when they visit the exhibition.

It has been entitled The Journey and tells the story of a fictional Jewish child as he lives through Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. But unlike the main display currently at the centre, it does not include detailed material or artefacts from the concentration camps and their gas chambers.

Ms Rosenthal's mother, father and grandmother all died in concentration camps during World War Two. She was liberated in 1945 as a three-year-old from the Theresienstadt camp in Czechoslovakia and flown to live in England, where she was later adopted.

Press Association