Spachingen to Allgäu

Members of the Boys were held in Nazi labour and concentration camps and used as slave labourers.

From 1933-1945 Nazi Germany operated over 1,000 concentration camps and subcamps in its own territory and across German occupied Europe. Among them was the Spaichingen suncamp of the Natzweiler-Struthoff concentration camp.

As the camps were dissolved thousands of people, among them members of the Boys, endured horrific evacuations from the camps on foot, in freight wagons and open top trains, as well as perilous journeys across the Baltic Sea. 

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

The weakest prisoners were transported to Dachau, which meant death for many. It is believed that Istvan Kanitz was on the train. The exact route taken by the train is not known.

The prisoners who were fit to march were given some provisions and had to set out on a death march towards Allgäu. Many of the weakened prisoners did not survive the march.