Leadership

Founder member of the Northern Holocaust Education Group.

Leah is a second generation Holocaust Survivor.  Both her parents were born in Poland.  Her father, survived 3 concentration camps and forced marches, and is the sole survivor of his nuclear family.  Her mother and nuclear family were in a Russian labour camp during WWII.  Most of the extended family on both sides remained in Poland and perished.

A proud member of the Association of Jewish Refugees and the Second Generation Network, she has helped to coordinate second generation support groups. An experienced educational and child psychologist and schools’ inspector for special educational needs, she has worked with children and young people of all ages. Her family experience and recognition of the importance of action to make the world a better place has led her to a lifelong involvement with anti racist training in education and with dialogue for peace organisations.

Leah has published and spoken widely on topics including her parents’ and grandparents’ stories as well as the personal, psychological impact of growing up within a survivor family, the psychology of holocaust survivors and attachment and loss.

Hannah is a Third Generation Holocaust survivor – and heads up NHEG’s Third Generation volunteers.

She has been interested in various aspects of the Holocaust since she was young. Her grandfather (or Zadie), Martin Wertheim came to the UK on the Kindertransport. In 2009 Hannah completed a Masters Degree in Holocaust Studies at the University of Manchester. As Hannah’s own children grew up and developed she was conscious of what and how to tell them of their family history.

Hannah is currently researching intergenerational trauma with second and third generation participants, exploring how their family history has affected their lives. As a third generation she is trying to unite other grandchildren of survivors to form a network across the UK.

Hannah is committed to remembering the Holocaust, educating others about the Holocaust in order to learn lesson from the Holocaust and relating those lessons to the continuing issues of discrimination, racism, antisemitism and persecution of the other. She was recently elected Chair of the Yom Hashoah Manchester Committee.

Judith Hayman studied at Manchester University before qualifying as an English teacher. After her three children were in school she returned to work as a newspaper journalist. She retained her interest in education and served as a governor of a large Manchester primary school for 20 years.

Her mother Charlotte escaped Austria after Kristallnacht. Judith used testimonies, family documents and photographs to reveal the fate of many family members.

Judith spoke to 30,000 schoolchildren about anti-Jewish racism in the two years before Covid. A teachers’ guide based on this resource, ‘Love thy Neighbour’, has been adopted by the national charity Campaign Against Antisemitism, CAA, and the Church of England Manchester Diocese.

Judith sees her work for NHEG and G2G, promoting Holocaust education and educating about anti-Jewish racism for CAA as indelibly linked. The alarming rate of antisemitism has convinced her that educating the next generation may offer a solution to the oldest hatred.

Founder member and chair of Northern Holocaust Education Group.

Ernie is a retired Accountant and Management Consultant who ran his own Europe-wide business.  Ernie is the son of a refugee German Jewish mother, who actively confronted the Nazi regime, and a refugee German non-Jewish father who had to flee Nazi Germany because he was a political opponent of the Nazi regime.

Ernie has been involved in Holocaust education for over ten years in the UK and in Germany.  Until Covid restrictions intervened, Ernie returned annually to Germany to speak in German at both schools and at the Museum of Christians and Jews in Laupheim about his family.

The experiences of Ernie’s family of intolerance and hatred of the “other” in the Nazi period made him realise the continuing importance and relevance of Holocaust education to standing up against antisemitism, Holocaust denial, racism and today’s genocides.

Although I have only recently been appointed Treasurer of NHEG, I have, over the years, in my capacity as a Chartered Accountant had as clients numerous charities (including Churches and Synagogues) and not for profit organisations. My interest in NHEG derives from the history of my late father and his family. My father escaped from Poland to Russia and then, via the Polish army, arrived in England in 1947. Sadly my grandmother, an aunt and uncle did not escape the Holocaust. I believe strongly that telling our family stories is vital to ensure the prevention of any Holocaust /Shoah being repeated to any group. It is vital that this terrible history is neither forgotten nor misremembered. It continues to be so relevant to future generations.

Founder member of Northern Holocaust Education Group.
NHEG CONSULTANT

Fran has worked for the Association of Jewish Refugees (AJR) for almost a decade, and was recently promoted to Head of Volunteer Services. The AJR supports Refugees and Survivors, who were the victims of Nazi oppression and Fran offers volunteer support to AJR’s members nationally.

Fran has for several years given advice and practical support to many local authorities in developing events to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day, including providing educational seminars on the rise of Antisemitism in Germany leading to the Holocaust.

Founder member of Northern Holocaust Education Group.
NHEG CONSULTANT

Jeremy Michelson comes from London. He has a degree in History, a teaching certificate and an M.Ed (General). He taught History in Colleges of Further Education before moving into Jewish education, eventually becoming Education Officer at Manchester Jewish Museum.

Jeremy completed the Holocaust Teachers Fellowship run by the Imperial War Museum, in which he created an introductory Holocaust pack for adults.

In the last few years he has run a consultancy involved in teaching about Judaism and the Holocaust.

Jeremy is Chair of the Education Advisory Group of the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester & Region and sits on the Education Committee of the Board of Deputies.

An inspiration behind the founding of Northern Holocaust Education Group and a founder member.

Lilian was instrumental in envisioning Northern Holocaust Education Group, in the knowledge that first generation Holocaust survivors would not be able to continue their work for ever.

The daughter of Holocaust survivor Eugene Black, she was a passionate advocate of survivor welfare.  Lilian was a champion of, and advocate for, people who had been adversely affected by intolerance, inequalities and discrimination.

Lilian sadly passed away in October 2020 due to Covid-19.
She is greatly missed by all her Northern Holocaust Education Group colleagues