Helen Bamber

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.

Helen Bamber (née Balmuth) was born in London on 1 May 1925 to a Jewish family of Polish origin.

With the JRU

At the age of about 19–20, just after the end of World War II, she joined the Jewish Relief Unit (JRU) and travelled to Germany as one of the first civilian aid and rehabilitation workers to help survivors of the concentration camps. She was stationed at the Belsen-Holne Displaced Persons Camp, where she worked with survivors suffering from severe trauma, disease, and starvation. She later described her time in Germany as defining for her life and work.

With the Boys in the UK

Bamber returned to the UK in 1947 and began working with young Holocaust survivors. She became a case-worker for the Committee for the Care of Concentration Camp Children, responsible for looking after the Boys, helping them adjust to British society, schooling, vocational training and emotional recovery. Later that year, she married Rudi Bamber, a German Jewish refugee.

She then trained as a psychotherapist and social scientist, studying at London School of Economics and working at the Anna Freud Clinic.

Later Career

She continued to devote her career to rehabilitation and human rights and became a pioneering figure in Britain for survivors of torture and extreme violence, co-founding the Medical Foundation for Care of Victims of Torture (later renamed Freedom From Torture). In 2005, she founded the Helen Bamber Foundation to continue her work trauma-informed work to support survivors of modern slavery, trafficking, and human rights violations.

Throughout her life, Bamber worked internationally with survivors of genocide, political persecution, and torture, in countries including Northern Ireland, Gaza, Uganda, Turkey and Kosovo.

Bamber was awarded the OBE in 1997 in recognition of her contributions to survivors of torture and human rights.

She died in London on 21 August 2014, aged 89.