Northampton

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

The Boys had survived the Holocaust as slave labourers in the Nazi concentration camp system, in hiding and by living alone. 

After arrival in the UK, members of the Boys spent time in the reception centres before being moved to children’s homes known as hostels. Others were sent direct to boarding school or yeshivas, and those who were sick spent time in sanatoriums.

Some of the members of the Boys were lucky enough to find relatives or were taken in by foster families but the majority were moved to hostels.

Northampton was one of these hostels.

The hostel was in Cliftonville, in the city of Northampton in the East Midlands region of England. It was a hostel for boys only. The house was called Holly Bank and was opposite a park.

The Northampton Story
The local Jewish community set up the hostel to house children brought to the UK in 1938 on a Kindertransport from Germany. During the Blitz, Jewish children who had been evacuated from big cities were also cared for in the hostel.

In late 1945, 15 Boys from the second group, who had been at the reception centre in Wintershill Hall, were brought to the hostel.

^{Jankiel Klajman in Kloster Indersdorf, Germany in 1945.}

“In addition to my studies, the headmaster insisted I play the violin, letting me use the same instrument he played when he was a boy. I took lessons and learned a great deal, even though I wasn’t too enthusiastic about it – I would have preferred to play another instrument such as the saxophone.

My lessons were paid for by a man named Mr Rothschild, who often came to the hostel to hear what his money had produced. I would spend hours practising the pieces I had learned so I wouldn’t embarrass  myself.”

Jankiel Klajman, later Jack Klajman, The Smallest Hope, (Azrieli Foundation, 2023).

Isidore Marx, the warden, is remembered as being very strict. He insisted on daily morning services and the Boys had to pray before eating. The papers of the Committee for the Care of the Concentration Camp Children show that Marx was constantly short of money.

With his wife Roza, he took about 1000 German Jewish children to the UK, Switzerland and France on a series of Kindertransports before World War II.

Marx’s daughter Esther, later Esther Newman, taught English at the hostel. Marx had a dog, called Queenie, which the Boys remember fondly.

Rabbi Nier came to teach the Boys Hebrew.

The Boys in Northampton played football and also learned how to play cricket. The hostel also had a large library of religious books.

The hostel had close links with the Bachad training farm in Bromsgrove.