Can you imagine what it was like being persecuted under the Nazi regime?

What about the importance of the people who suffered in Hitler's death camps and the contribution their witness statements have made towards tackling anti-semitism and racism?

Those were the questions posed to hundreds of schoolchildren as they were asked to think about how the world would be today if the Allies had lost the Second World War.

The results are now part of a new exhibition at Southend Library called What If? and is part of a package of events to mark Holocaust Memorial Day in Southend.

Pupils from Earls Hall Junior School and Milton Hall Primary School, both in Westcliff, Bournes Green Junior School in Southend, Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School in Leigh and Shoebury High School took part in the exhibition.

Daniel Alden, 11, of Our Lady of Lourdes, said: "I picked a man called Simon Wiesenthal because I thought everyone else would pick more famous people.

"I researched him on the internet and found out some facts about him which I then typed up.

"I found out that he was an Austrian-Hungarian boy and when he was younger, he was a Nazi hunter and he tried to track down some of the people that were the perpetrators at Auschwitz.

"I think he was quite brave to do that.

"It made me think that Hitler was sometimes quite evil and that he shouldn't have done it."

Fellow pupil Lucy Rusz, ten, researched the life of Anne Frank.

She said: "I learnt, for her 13th birthday, she was given a diary which she called Kitty and, because her family was Jewish, she had to go into hiding. I don't think it was fair that Hitler wanted to kill all Jews and I learnt about the people of the Second World War and how they weren't treated fairly."

Daniel and Lucy were at the exhibition to see the final pieces being put together.

Lucy added: "It looks really nice.

"I think it will teach people how people were treated and that it shouldn't happen again."

David Garston, chairman of Southend Council's Holocaust Memorial Day working party, helped to organise the project and said involving schools was an important aspect of the group's work.

He said: "It is vitally important the children know about it because if they have got the facts, they will know what happened and what impact there would have been if Hitler had won the war and invaded England.

"Mainly, the exhibition focuses on the achievements of people who would have been murdered or perished or who may not have been born."

He added: "I am very impressed and in fact it is quite humbling to see it because the work they have done is so professional."

It will remain open from Monday to Friday, from 9am to 7pm, and Saturday, from 9am to 5pm, until Monday, February 5.