Lenzing

Members of the Boys were slave labourers in the Lenzing labour camp, a subcamp of the Mauthausen concentration camp.

Mauthausen concentration camp was operated by Nazi Germany. The camp had 40 subcamps.

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

^{Mathausen Memorial, Austria.}

The camp was located in Pettighofen. The first prisoner transport of 500 women arrived at Lenzing station from Auschwitz on 30 October 1944.

Structure

The former paper factory consisted of several small production shops and a walled yard towards the Ager river. The yard was also used for roll calls, which the prisoners had to attend regularly. In total, 577 female prisoners were held at Lenzing Subcamp. They were either transferred over directly from Auschwitz or from Mauthausen.

The camp was for female prisoners. It was located about 5km walk from the paper factory where they were slave labourers. The factory belonged to Zellwolle Lenzing AG. The prisoners of Lenzing Subcamp had to work in the rayon factory. The operation was organised in three shifts. The women had to work three weeks straight to get two days off work. The long commute on foot from the camp to the production facility and back only added to the long, exhausting, and unhealthy work. Inside the factory, the women had to work with poisonous chemicals without any protection.

Liberation

The guards abandoned the Lenzing camp on 4 May 1944. The first US troops arrived in Lenzing on 5 May 1945. 562 women survived.