Herbert Laster

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.

Laster worked at the Wintershill Hall reception centre, where he helped the Boys to adjust to living in the UK after the war. He was also the leader of the religious Zionist movement Bachad. He worked in a number of the hostels and was much loved by the Boys.

Laster was killed when his EL AL plane was shot down over Bulgaria in 1955. His widow, Chava Avniel, lives in Kibbutz Lavi in Israel which was founded by Bachad in 1949.

In 1956, the Herbert Laster Memorial Hostel was founded at Thaxted Farm.