Otto Schiff

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.

Otto Schiff (1875–1952) was a German-Jewish philanthropist and key figure in British refugee aid. Born in Frankfurt, Schiff moved to Britain as a young man and made a career in banking but his work with refugees left a lasting legacy in humanitarian aid.

In 1933, Schiff co-founded and served as chairman of the Jewish Refugee Committee (JRC), which coordinated relief efforts for Jews fleeing Nazi Germany. The JRC arranged housing, financial support, and legal aid for refugees, and worked closely with the British government on immigration and resettlement policies.

He also co-founded the Central British Fund for German Jewry (CBF) in 1933, alongside Leonard Montefiore and Lionel de Rothschild. Schiff played an instrumental role in the Kindertransport, negotiating with British authorities to secure the entry of around 10,000 Jewish children from Central Europe between 1938 and 1939. The CBF then went on to organise the arrival and rehabilitation of the Boys in Britain, from 1945.

In 1947, Schiff was awarded a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) for his humanitarian efforts. He died in London in 1952.

In 2018, he posthumously received the British Hero of the Holocaust medal.