A Rollcall of Honour for My Voice Storytellers

In an outpouring of affection and gratitude, and a profound display of respect, guests at The Fed’s ‘Afternoon of Honour’ applauded long and hard as the names of 17 Holocaust Survivors and Refugees present at the event were called, and one by one each rose to their feet. Those unable to attend were similarly acknowledged.

This triumphant rollcall lauded each storyteller who has so far recorded and published their experiences through the charity’s My Voice project. It is impossible to imagine a starker contrast to the terrible twice daily “Appell” of the concentration camps, used by the Nazis to count and further degrade and intimidate their prisoners, as is so often recorded in survivors’ memoirs.

The celebratory afternoon took place on 20 September 2022 at Bowdon Shul and was attended by the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, Deputy Lieutenant of Greater Manchester, Susan Craig, representatives of the National Heritage Lottery Fund and Yad Vashem UK, local dignitaries, survivors’ families and invited guests.

Mr Burnham, who endorsed the project’s successful bid for lottery funding in its early days and has said that My Voice books should be in every school, described The Fed as “a jewel in the crown of Greater Manchester”.

The purpose of the afternoon was twofold: – to recognise the enormous contribution to Jewish and wider society made by the My Voice participants in sharing their stories, and their courage in doing so, and to honour the 50 volunteers involved in the project. The group befriend the survivors and record their stories – giving each the support, space and as much time as they need. Alongside them, others work behind-the-scenes, acting as transcribers, editors, photographers, and designers. Together they given hundreds upon hundreds of hours to produce, to date, 33 life-story books with a further 11 currently in production. In acknowledgement of their outstanding work the group were granted our late Majesty’s Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2021, and due to the pandemic, this was the first opportunity to publicly celebrate their achievement.

At the close of the event Storytellers and, in the case of those who had passed away since their books were published, their family members, gathered in the reception hall to sign copies of the life-story books which were then presented to Helen Kon, of Yad Vashem UK to be archived at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

The Fed’s Marketing and Communications Manager, Joyce Khan described how, “Guests listened with rapt attention as two of the storytellers – Anne Super and Ike Alterman – read harrowing extracts from their books. Each recalled their final moments with the loved ones they would never see again. The pain of hearing their experiences was visceral. But the overriding emotion of the day was one of joyous defiance. Like so many others, despite the horrors of their early years, they have lived wonderful, full lives – and nothing could sum this up more than when we watched as Ike grabbed the hands of fellow survivor, Tommy Schweiger, to pull him up dance with him as he sang ‘To Life, To Life, L’Chaim’.”

“My Voice enables its participants to tell their whole life stories. My Voice gives them the certain knowledge that they are heard and listened to and that there are people who will be guardians of their stories when they pass away, ensuring their voices continue to be heard by future generations.”