Yaacov Schloss was born in Gelsenkirchen Westphalia in 1924. His parents were murdered in Auschwitz in September 1942. Following the outbreak of war, he travelled around Europe before joining the British Army (Pioneer Corps) in Algiers around 1944.
In 1945 he joined the Jewish 3 troop 10 Commando unit, where he served until 1947.
He lived the rest of his life in North West London, known to all as Jack Scott.
Dancing to steel pan at the annual La Salette street party outside the Dominica Association. La Salette is a Catholic feast day widely celebrated in Dominica where the majority of the population are Catholic. I chose this photograph as this street party has been a regular celebration in Bradford since I moved to the city and lived close to DUKA in the mid 1980s.
When you move to a new country everything is different, you’re surrounded by people who don’t look like you and don’t think like you. You can’t tell who will help you, who will ignore you and who might be hostile. You wonder if leaving home was a mistake. Sometimes you’re not sure who you are, would your parents recognise you? It feels like you’re on your own. For some people, practicing the religion of their parents together with other uprooted people is a way of giving and getting support. The Italian Procession with its floats of saints and biblical tableaux gives the community a chance to proudly show off its Italian roots.
Yasser was brought up in a rural district approximately 800km from Khartoum. He fled his country at the age of 28, after being imprisoned and tortured by the Sudanese State. When he was released he had no choice but to run; leaving his mother and younger sister behind, he went to Libya, from there, he managed to get to England. He had very little money and no contacts here. Growing up was hard and it wasn’t safe, ‘human rights are like the lottery in Sudan, some get it, some don’t’.
He settled in Birmingham, and was granted asylum in 2005. He loves the UK but even though he has asylum status he is scared to call on the authorities such as the police or the ambulance in case he is sent back to Sudan. Due to the nature of his arrival and stay, he now suffers from ill health. He hasn’t spoken to his family now for a few years even though they are alive and well.
I decided to take the picture the way I did because it shows how he was feeling. It made me realise how much I was taking life for granted. I am the same age as this man and his upbringing and mine were vastly different.
