At 16-years-old, media student Reece Taylor is only a year older than Polish holocaust survivor Roman Halter was when he became orphaned – his father a victim of starvation and his mother sent to an extermination camp.

The two would have never normally crossed paths, but a compelling joint film project between Haringey Council, video website TrueTube and History Speaks, to mark Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27, has brought them together.

Taking the nationwide theme of Legacy of Hope, the project involved six young people, Reece, Michael Amartey, Funmi Abari, VyVy Nguyne, Thao Ngo and Eirini Wallace, interviewing local holocaust survivors to create four poignant short films.

Project co-ordinator and Haringey Council’s Equalities Events Officer, Ursula Stone explains: “There is an ageing holocaust survivor community in Haringey whose accounts have not really been recorded, now there is a legacy! I wanted young people to think about the relevance of their stories today and the idea of the young and old coming together is really interesting.”

Speaking about the experience, Reece, who lives in Tottenham and attends Epping Forest College, candidly admits: “To be honest, I didn’t really know anything about the Holocaust before this project and I was shocked by what I heard, it’s tragic.”

The emotional films, which will be screened at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre next Tuesday and have already been show at the BFI, feature harrowing tales of survival from architect and Auschwitz survivor Roman, Austrian author Martha Blend, Hungarian artist Moshe Galili and dress designer Ruth Schneider, who was incarcerated in Holloway Prison as an enemy alien after fleeing Vienna.

Clearly touched by the experience, Reece, who worked as a cameraman, editor and music producer on the films, continues: “I knew their stories would be dramatic but I never thought they would be that deep, the stuff that they had to do to survive was astonishing.”

In preparation for filming, the group travelled to the Beth Shalom Centre, a holocaust museum in Newark, where they met an ex-BNP member, holocaust survivor Rudi Oppenheimer and Darfur campaigners.

With these new tools of knowledge, the teenagers were able to make informed decisions about their films and Ursula tells me the survivors are “delighted” with the results.

Of course, the project also had an impact on the younger generation involved. “It just makes me appreciate things much more,” Reece, who will also perform with his band, UBM, at the screening, tells me. “It also makes me weary about things that could happen in life, it all just happened so fast.”

Legacy of Hope will be screened at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre, Town Hall Approach Road, Tottenham Green, London, on Tuesday, January 26, 6pm. To view the films visit www.truetube.co.uk.

To learn more about HMD visit www.hmd.org.uk