Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad

The Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad (JCRA) was a British Jewish relief body established during the World War II to provide aid to Jewish refugees and survivors in Europe. Its work was closely connected to the Central British Fund (CBF) and to the British component of the Jewish Relief Unit (JRU). The JRU played a key role in the story of the Boys

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

JCRA’s mission was to send trained welfare workers, teachers, nurses, rabbis and administrators into Europe to support survivors immediately after the war, particularly those in displaced persons camps.

Work in Germany and Bergen-Belsen
After months of bureaucratic obstacles, the JCRA succeeded in sending its first team—led by Shalom Markovitz—to Germany in June 1945. Its arrival in Bergen-Belsen was critical as thousands of survivors remained without medical care or shelter. The JCRA team assisted British military personnel and UNRRA staff by establishing a children’s homes, organising food supplies, offering pastoral support, and helping to restore basic services. Among its volunteers were Helen Bamber, Sadie Rurka (Hofstein), Eva Kahn-Minden, and others who later played important roles in caring for the Boys in Britain. You can read more about them here.

Role in Bringing the Boys to the UK
The JCRA and JRU were crucial in identifying, caring for, and preparing the young survivors in Bergen-Belsen and other DP camps for emigration to Britain. They compiled lists of unaccompanied children, assessed their needs, and coordinated with the CBF to arrange transport. The JCRA’s presence on the ground helped make possible the eventual transfer of the Belsen children—part of the second group of the Boys—to the UK in late 1945.