YOUNG people in Hartlepool have launched a search for residents in the town with experience of the Holocaust.

Working with Hartlepool Council’s Youth Support Service, eight young people aged between 13 and 16 have formed the ‘Holocaust Memorial Group – Hartlepool’ to commemorate, and help other youngsters understand about, the Nazi persecution and subsequent genocides such as those in Cambodia, Rwanda and Bosnia.

As part of their research they are hoping to find and interview people in their town who either survived the Holocaust or are relatives or friends of someone who experienced it, or who were involved in the liberation of the German concentration camps at the end of the war.

One particular hope is to trace veterans of local regiment the Durham Light Infantry which was involved in helping to free thousands of starving and seriously ill prisoners from the infamous Bergen-Belsen camp in 1945.

Anyone who can help the project should contact Beth Storey of the Youth Support Service on 01429-523762 or email beth.storey@hartlepool.gov.uk