Art and design student Alexander Ziff has created a Holocaust memorial in honour of his grandparents, who arrived in the UK on the Kindertransport.

Alexander, whose family owns Barratts at Apperley Bridge, has created Meta, a striking sculpture made from shoes, in the shape of a hand reaching towards the sky.

Named after the Greek preposition for ‘after’, ‘beyond’, ‘adjacent’ and ‘self’, the artwork is in honour of his grandparents, HE Samson and Rita Samson, who came to London aged 16 and ten, sole survivors of their Austrian and German families who were murdered at Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps.

“They arrived here with nothing and had to start from scratch. They opened steel businesses in Leeds and Sheffield,” says Alexander. “There are loads of stories like this that I grew up with. The interesting thing for me, as a Jewish kid born in Leeds, is how I need to balance my everyday life with where I come from.

“This piece is meant to talk a bit about how one balances life; the individuals we all are versus the shape we make when we’re together as a society or a group.”

He adds: “I used shoes because they are personal but also mass produced. Every scuff, worn-down sole or re-polished heel is like an active record of your life - where you've been, what happened there and how you looked, how comfortable you were, and what you've been doing with your life.”

Alexander say he didn't want the hand to express a specific emotion. “I didn't want it clenched or praying or anything like that, I just wanted it neutral, so it can become whatever you want it to be.

“As each generation goes on I think we need to keep hold of who we are even more, but also accept where we are and who is around us even more. So I suppose this piece is also about multi-culturalism and how so many different shapes, colours, creeds and beliefs can all come together and work together – the way your hands do.”

Meta is part of Leeds University School of Design’s degree show, running from June 17-22 at the Clothworkers Central Building.