Resources

Ann Kirk was born in Berlin, Germany in 1928. In 1933 the Nazis came to power and everything changed for Ann and her family. After the Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938, when Ann was 10, she travelled to the UK alone on the Kindertransport.

As a boy, Elie Wiesel survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald camps. As an adult, he dedicated himself to commemorating the Holocaust and to ensuring its lessons were learnt. He was an acclaimed author and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He died on 2 July 2016, aged 87.

Researching her family history, Sigrid Falkenstein found her aunt’s name – Anna Lehnkering – on a list of 30,000 people who were murdered by the Nazis as part of the Aktion T4 project in the year 1940/1941. This spurred Sigrid on to find out more both about her Aunt and Aktion T4, the Nazi programme for sterilising and murdering those with mental or physical disabilities.

Chanrithy Him is a child survivor of the Genocide in Cambodia. She experienced unimaginable trauma when she lost both her parents and five siblings during Pol Pot’s regime. Today, she finds strength in telling her story and sharing a part of her culture through the medium of dance.

Holocaust survivor Raphael Lemkin coined the word ‘genocide’ and helped establish the term in international law. Shocked and saddened by massacres throughout history, as well as the murder of his family by the Nazis, he longed for accountability for deplorable acts committed by countries within their own borders, campaigning tirelessly to reach his goal.

Sedin Mustafić survived the Genocide in Bosnia. He had to flee his home with nothing when the Bosnian War started, ending up in the apparently safe area of Srebrenica.

Henry Wermuth’s mother and sister were taken away by the Nazis in the summer of 1942. Henry and his father were forced to work for the Nazis and Henry took an opportunity to try and derail a train that Hitler would be travelling on. Although unsuccessful, Henry was later awarded a medal for his attempt to assassinate Hitler.

Abdul Aziz Mustafa is a member of the Zaghawa people, and grew up in Darfur. At the age of 13 his family life was destroyed by persecution by the Sudanese Government. Abdul Aziz escaped Sudan by being smuggled on a lorry in an arduous 22 day journey.

Hope lost family members in the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Today, as a founder of the Mashirika Performing Arts Media Company, Hope uses the arts to explore the legacy of Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

Johann ‘Rukeli’ Trollmann was born on 27 December 1907 near Hannover. He was a popular German Sinto boxer, who was discriminated against, marginalised, sterilised, and finally deported to a concentration camp, where he was murdered. Here, Rainer Schulze, Professor of Modern European History at the University of Essex, shares his story.