AN exhibition of artworks inspired by the evacuation of thousands of Jewish children to Britain before the Second World War has gone on display in Bournemouth.

The works are by Wiltshire artist Simon Shaw and were inspired by the tale of his own father Otto, who was among the nearly 10,000 children who escaped Germany and eastern Europe on the Kindertransport in the late 1930s, and thus avoided likely death during the Holocaust.

Organised by the Bournemouth and Poole Holocaust Memorial Day Committee, the exhibition commemorates the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp.

“This is really an educational opportunity,” said Mr Shaw, who is also an art teacher.

The works are based on his father’s photographs, taken shortly before he was evacuated.

“I want people, particularly children, to think about what it must have been like to be a ten-year-old child told to pack your bags because the next day you are leaving your parents behind and going to another country,” he added.

“No other country did anything of this scale to save Jewish children, and that is something we should remember.”

The Kindertransport was organised following Kristallnacht – one night between November 9 and 10, 1938, when Nazi thugs attacked and murdered Jews across Germany and Austria, smashing and looting their businesses and homes.

The British government approved the scheme, and set aside immigration restrictions to allow for a swifter evacuation. Many of the children brought to the UK lost all their other family members in the camps.

“This is a very important year for us,” said committee chairman Lynda Ford-Horne.

“We have done something to mark the anniversary of the liberation every year since we were founded in 2001.

“It is important that we continue to remember the Holocaust, and also other genocides which have taken place around the world since.”

Mr Shaw will be visiting the exhibition this morning to speak with the public, joined by a Kindertransport evacuee.