YORK has been chosen to host the world premiere next month of a new film about the international failure to prosecute most of those responsible for the Holocaust.

The film, ‘Getting Away With Murder(s,) claims a million people were involved in the murder of 11 million innocent men, women and children, but 99 per cent escaped justice.

Filmmaker David Wilkinson, who took 18 years to bring the feature-length documentary to the big screen, says his film premieres are normally held either in London or at one of the prestigious film festivals, such as Sundance or Edinburgh.

But he said some of the filming took place at Clifford’s Tower, where, in 1190, Britain inflicted its own Holocaust when the city’s Jewish population was massacred whilst under the King’s protection, committing mass suicide rather than wait to be killed by a mob.

He said York was an example of how a city can turn itself around and learn from events almost 900 years ago, having become one of the first cities in the UK to receive City of Human Rights status and with York City of Sanctuary seeking to promote an environment of compassion and understanding.

“As a Yorkshire man I have always felt singularly uneasy that my own county City was the setting for such a horrific crime,” he said.

“Therefore, it seemed appropriate and particularly fitting to me that the City of York should be where I launch this film. It is an example of how a city and a Jewish community has and continues to move forward together.”

He said the Everyman cinema in Blossom Street would screen the film on September 9, with York Liberal Jewish Community Co-hosting the event.

He hoped the screening could launch a campaign to raise money for an improved memorial at Clifford’s Tower for the 1,190 victims, within a wider contemplative space being proposed for the site.

H said that after filming at many Holocaust memorial sites to murdered Jews all over Europe, in Berlin, Vilnius, Kaunas, Liepaja, Günzburg, Dachau, Vienna and Auschwitz, he kept wondering why there was not something better in York.

“The more locations I visited, the more I became convinced that York too should have its own deferential memorial to those Jews murdered in the city, no matter how long ago it took place.”

To buy a ticket go to Getting Away With Murder(s) + Live Q&A Tickets & Times at York EVERYMAN (everymancinema.com)