Rachel ‘Rae’ Barash

The Central British Fund (CBF) put together a large team of people to look after the Boys.

The Boys were teenage and child-Holocaust survivors, who were brought to the UK after the war for rest and rehabilitation.

The British government offered 1,000 visas to bring the Boys to the UK but the caveat was that the CBF were responsible for their care and would pay all the expenses.

Barasch was born on Great Clowes Street, Manchester in 1902. Her parents, who were both Jewish, had moved to the UK from Poland and Romania.

In the 1920s, Barash began voluntary work helping with the after-care of Jewish children leaving the ‘Delamere Fresh Air Home and School for Delicate Children’, which was founded by Margaret Landon. Barash worked with Langdon for many years in the School Camps Association, which provided holidays for needy children.

In 1933, Barash helped to establish and run the Hospitality Committee, which helped German-Jewish refugee girls to find work in British homes as au pairs. The committee provided pocket money, domestic classes and English lessons.

By 1938, as the number of refugees coming to the UK increased dramatically after the Kristallnacht progrom in November of that year, Barash became one of the founders of the Jewish Refugee Aid Committee and was appointed its Honorary Secretary.

The Jewish Refugee Aid Committee was funded by the Central British Fund (CBF). Barash worked with the CBF as the Public Assistant of Refugees.

Barash was in Windermere when the first group of the Boys arrived and coordinated the care of those Boys housed in the north-west of England.