The Holocaust claimed the lives of nearly six million European Jews.

Some of the survivors encountered people who helped them. For both those rendering help and those seeking to survive that was a risky undertaking that could cost one’s own life. The aid assumed many forms depending on wartime conditions in a given region of Europe, awareness of the tragic fate of Jews as well as other individual factors. The exhibition presents accounts from fifteen European countries.

The British chapter features the stories of Eva Paddock, who arrived in Great Britain as a child on a transport organised by Sir Nicholas Winton, and Ida and Louise Cook, London-based sisters who helped Jewish refugees before the war by smuggling their valuables across borders and supporting them upon arrival in the UK. The Cook sisters were honoured as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1964.

Between Life and Death pays tribute to those who, despite the threat of imprisonment, deportation, or death, chose to help persecuted Jews during the Second World War. By combining the stories of rescuers and survivors, the exhibition explores acts of moral courage and the complexity of human relationships under extreme wartime conditions, placing each story within its broader historical context.

The exhibition is a joint initiative of ENRS, the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, and the Silent Heroes Memorial Centre in Berlin. First presented in Brussels in 2018, the exhibition has since been shown in numerous locations across Europe and Japan, and coming to Eccles Library in June.

Suitable for ages 16 years and over. Please check the library opening times before planning your visit.