Video: The Forever Project preserver the memoirs of holocaust survivors.
A Nottinghamshire holocaust exhibition has reached the final stage of a National Lottery competition to win £5,000 to spend on the project.
The Forever Project, based at the National Holocaust Centre, in Newark, has fended off more than 1,300 organisations to reach the final of the National Lottery Awards.
It is competing against six other exhibitions in the Best Heritage Project category and has reached the public voting stage, to crown the UK’s favourite lottery-funded project.
The project with the most votes will be crowned the winner and receive the cash prize.
The Forever Project combines technology and history to inform and educate future generations about the holocaust, the mass genocide which was led by Germany’s former Nazi leader Adolph Hitler and killed six million Jews in Europe.
The project uses technology to record and preserve the memories of survivors to interact with visitors before they die.
Martin Stern, 69, originally from Hilversum in Holland, was arrested by the Nazis after they invaded Holland in 1940 when he was five at his pre-school in Amsterdam.
And Martin spent time in captivity at concentration camps in Westerbork and Theresienstadt; his sister was also arrested when she was one.
His memories have been preserved at the Nottinghamshire exhibition.
He said: “We were both sent to a prison camp in Holland and the first thing I was told was not to go anywhere near the barbed wire because the soldiers in the watchtowers would shoot me did.”
He added the Newark project is important to let people know more about the history of the holocaust.
Sarah Coward, of the National Holocaust Centre, says winning the prestigious award would be an honour.
She said: “It’s amazing that the Forever Project has made it through to the National Lottery Awards. Thanks to National Lottery funding the Forever Project can make sure that the testimonies of holocaust survivors are never lost and can continue to tell of the horror they experienced long after they are able to tell the stories themselves.
“We hope that our family and communities can get behind this project and vote for us in the National Lottery Awards.”
Jackie O’Sullivan, spokesperson for the National Lottery Awards, said: “National Lottery players raise £30 million every single week for good causes across the UK and the work done with that money is truly life-changing.
“The National Lottery Awards celebrate the talent and dedication of the amazing staff and volunteers who run these incredible National Lottery funded projects for the benefit of their communities.
“The Forever Project has worked very hard to become a finalist and they now need your support. So get voting.”
Votes can be cast on the National Lottery’s website or by ringing 0844 836 9699.
The campaign can also be followed using the hashtag #NLAwards on Twitter.
Voting started June 29 until midnight on July 27.
There are seven projects competing for votes across seven categories, reflecting the main areas of National Lottery funding: arts, sport, heritage, health, environment, education and charity.
