AN almost unheralded event in North-East war-time history was marked at the opening of a new memorial dedicated to holocaust victims.

The Holocaust and Genocide Memorial was unveiled at a ceremony in the grounds of St Aidan’s College, Durham, today (Sunday October 12).

Apart from recalling the horrors suffered by millions of holocaust victims, the new work highlights the connection between Bergen Belsen, one of Germany’s most notorious Second World War concentration camps, and the Durham Light Infantry (DLI).

Members of the now disbanded county regiment were part of the British 11th Armoured Division which liberated the camp, in Lower Saxony, in April 1945.

Apart from freeing 60,000 prisoners, many near to death with starvation, the horrified liberators discovered the unburied corpses of 13,000 others lying round the camp.

Dr Henry Dyson, Durham University’s Keeper of Fine Art, said the memorial was unique in recalling the act of liberation by soldiers from the region.

“It was the DLI which liberated Bergen Belsen and this is the only memorial in the North-East to mark the event.”

The work consists of several pieces of stone carved by local artist Neil Molloy, a former fine arts lecturer at Sunderland College.

It features a suit case bearing the name Zdenka Fantlova, with her concentration number alongside, plus a bundle of unidentified possessions, a pair of shoes and other possessions hastily put together by a Bergen Belsen survivor when she was told to leave home, unknowingly heading for the camp.

She went on to give an account of her horrendous journey and experiences in the 2012 book, The Tin Ring, which recalls the liberation by the DLI.

Dr Dyson added: “It’s a sensitive and beautiful carved memorial which will remain in the college garden in perpetuity as part of the university’s art collection.”

Members of the Jewish community present at the unveiling marked its opening by saying Kaddish, their prayer to the dead.