SURVIVORS of persecution who found sanctuary and comfort in Brighton and Hove are the focus of a new exhibition marking Holocaust Memorial Day.

The incredible true-life stories of endurance of Holocaust survivors Rose Canaan and Hans Levy as well as Iranian restauranteur Sadeq are the centrepieces of the new exhibition.

The exhibition, organised by The Brighton and Hove Holocaust Education Project, is inspired by this year’s theme How Does Life Go On?

The city, which celebrated 250 years of Jewish Heritage last year, will also mark the international day with a special visit to Blatchington Mill School by Hove MP Peter Kyle on Thursday.

The three-part exhibit at Jubilee Library launched on Monday and runs all week.

It features charcoal portrait reproductions and photographs to commemorate the lives of Holocaust survivors Rose Canaan and Hans Levy who both died last year.

Rose, who wrote memoir In Paris We Sang, was one of the last members of the Kindertransport to escape Germany, arriving in Britain just before the outbreak of Second World War.

Rose opened Evansky’s salon in Mayfair with her husband Albert Evansky in 1943 and her reputation soon grew.

She is famous for inventing the blow-dry hairdressing technique, trained Leonard Lewis, later known as “Leonard of Mayfair”, and was described by Vidal Sassoon as “without question the top female stylist in the country”.

Also remembered is Hans Levy who was smuggled into Amsterdam with his brother but left behind his mother and father who died in Nazi concentration camps.

He grew up in children’s homes in Manchester before becoming a silver engraver and violinist with Manchester’s Halle orchestra.

The exhibition also features colour photographs of Sadeq who fled persecution in Iran in 2004 and sought refuge in Brighton despite knowing no one and speaking no English.

He found work at a kebab shop, turning down the offer of a cleaning job preferring to be at the front of the shop to improve his English.

Sadeq went to college and gained qualifications and although the shop closed down, when it reopened in 2011 he was asked him to takeover the running of the business.

Two years later, he had earned enough to buy the business and even averted the threat of closure by health and safety officers to turn it into a five star cleanliness venue. The final part of the exhibition features the reflections of Carden Primary School pupils inspired by resident Bryan Huberman, whose late father was a Holocaust survivor.