Joan Stiebel

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.

Stiebel was born in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey in 1911.

In 1933, Stiebel became the secretary to Otto Schiff (CBE), who played a major role in aiding Jews escape Nazi Europe. She subsequently worked full time at the Central British Fund.

In the aftermath of the Holocaust, Stiebel helped coordinate the Boys entry into the UK. She personally organised travel arrangements, met the children on arrival (including at the Carlisle airstrip), assisted at the Windermere reception centre and co-ordinated their placement into hostels and family homes across Britain.

Stiebel remained involved with the Boys and with refugee welfare throughout her life. In 1947 she helped found Jewish Child’s Day, and in 1958 she was appointed joint secretary of World Jewish Relief, the successor charity of the Central British Fund.

She retired after more than 40 years’ service and was awarded the MBE in 1978 for her lifelong work for refugees; in 2019, she posthumously received the British Hero of the Holocaust award.