Huta Ludwików 

Members of the Boys were slave labourers in the Huta Ludwików labour camp in Kielce, Poland .

The Huta Ludwików 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.

The camp was based in the Ludwików Steelworks, one of the oldest and best-known Polish metal parts manufacturers on Zagnańska ul. in Kielce.

History

The camp functioned from 1 June 1943 following the liquidation of the Kielce Ghetto to 1 August 1944 and held 330 people.

The factory, a key armaments producer, was confiscated by the Germans and given to the Maschinen-und Waggonbau G.M.B. company as Werke Ludwigshütte. All modern machines were dismantled and sent to Germany. The motorcycle plant was turned into a repair workshop for German army motorbikes while the steel works continued to produce basic agricultural machinery and kettles.

Dissolution

As the front was nearing, in 1944 the German authorities dismantled virtually all remaining machines and sent them westwards, thus destroying the factory. After its liquidation the prisoners were transferred to the Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp.

Aftermath

The factory now produces car parts.