Hirschberg 

Member of the Boys were taken as slave labours to the Hirschberg labour camp, a subcamp of the Gross Rosen concentration camp in southwestern Poland, but part of Germany during World War II.

The Gross Rosen concentration camp was operated by Nazi Germany.  The camp had 100 subcamps located in what is now Czechia, Germany and Poland. 

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

History

Hirschberg concentration camp was in Jelenia Gora southwestern Poland in the region of Lower Silesia, which was then the German town of Hirschberg im Riesengebirge.

The labour camp was founded in 1942; in March 1944 it became one of the subcamps of Gross-Rosen.

It held mostly Jewish men from throughout occupied Europe, who worked in the chemical department of a rayon plant, primarily for the Schlesische Zellwolle AG – Hirschberg.

The work was extremely dangerous and prisoners often lost their fingers and even their hands.

Hirschberg is in the mountains and temperatures were extremely low, nevertheless prisoners stood outside on rollcall for hours.

When the Red Army crossed the then Polish-German border in early February 1945, about 500 more prisoners were deported from the Bolkenhain subcamp to the Hirschberg subcamp.

Dissolution & Liberation

Hirschberg was evacuated on 17 February 1945 as the Red Army approached.

Prisoners wearing insufficient clothing were forced to walk for three days before they were put on trains and taken to Buchenwald concentration camp.