Bełžec Lubelski

Members of the Boys were slave labourers in the Bełžec Lubelski labour camp in Poland.

The Bełžec Lubelski labour camp was set up and run by Nazi Germany.

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

Bełžec Lubelski is in southeastern Poland.

History

Between May and August 1940, the Germans established a series of labour camps in and around the village of Bełžec to house workers building a series of fortifications along the border with the Soviet Union known as the Otto Line – a rampart of 140km between the Bug and San rivers.

Little is known about the complex other than labour camps were housed in 35 locations in abandoned synagogues, warehouses and barns.

About 10,000 forced labourers worked on the project. Conditions were terrible, food was poor and there was widespread dysentery.