THEY fled persecution and death in Nazi Germany to find a welcome refuge in the heart of Scotland's largest city.

And now the stories of Jews who ran from Hitler's murderous wrath will be safeguarded forever with the building of a new Scottish Holocaust-era Study Centre inside the country's oldest surviving synagogue.

Garnethill Synagogue is to become home to Scotland's first Jewish Heritage Centre after securing the promise of almost £350,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The building, which has been a focal point for the Jewish community for more than a century, will provide public access to artefacts which document the experiences of refugees fleeing from Nazi Europe before the outbreak of the Second World War and of those who came after the end of the conflict as survivors of the concentration camps and show how they found a safe haven in Scotland.

It will also detail the lives and contributions of the congregation down through the decades, some of whom made pioneering contributions to the development of modern Glasgow.

The project is a joint partnership between the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre and Garnethill Synagogue Preservation Trust, owners of the Synagogue, and puts in place plans for the long-term wellbeing of the grade A listed synagogue building.

More than 30 volunteers will help develop and deliver community and public services once the centre is opened, and the project will extend out from the synagogue to establish a walking trail which will show how the Garnethill area was a hub for Jewish refugees in the 1930s and 1940s.

Gernethill synagogue's roots go back to a handful of traders from England, Germany and the Low Countries who settled in Glasgow in the 1790s and founded a place where they were free to follow their religion and contribute to society. As early as 1812, a member of the community had been made a Freeman of Glasgow.

The synagogue building opened on its current hill top site in 1879, as the congregation moved here as part of the expansion of Victorian Glasgow.

Bernard Goodman, Chair of the Garnethill Synagogue Preservation Trust, said: "This HLF-funded project is an important first step in realising a Scottish Jewish Heritage Centre by improving access to the synagogue site, creating new research spaces, developing interpretation and activities on Scottish Jewish heritage and building on the existing partnership between the Trust and Archives.”

The Scottish Jewish Archives Centre was founded as a charity in 1987 and is based inside the synagogue. It collects documents the experiences of Jewish people in Scotland dating back over 200 years, with much of its collection coming from current and former communities in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen, Greenock, Inverness, Falkirk, Ayr and Dunfermline.

Director Harvey Kaplan, added: “We have seen a significant increase in demand for access to the Holocaust-era collections, especially from primary and secondary schools, undergraduate students and postgraduate university researchers.

"At the same time, an increasing number of former refugees and their families have donated their memorabilia and documents to the Archives Centre.

"It is wonderful that we can take this project forward now while survivors are still alive and they can see their history being preserved and being used and they and their families can be actively part of it all."

He said: "Scotland’s record in welcoming Jewish refugees fleeing from Nazi Europe has much to teach us which is relevant to migration and anti-racism issues today."

Lucy Casot, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in Scotland, said: “The opportunities for learning from this nationally important archive are immense.

"We are delighted that thanks to National Lottery players, we can support the development of a project which will share the untold stories of Scotland’s Jewish history while preserving it for future generations.”