The Boys were teenage and child-Holocaust survivors, who were brought to the UK after the war for rest and rehabilitation.
The Boys had survived the Holocaust as slave labourers in the Nazi concentration camp system, in hiding and by living alone.
After arrival in the UK, members of the Boys spent time in the reception centres before being moved to children’s homes known as hostels. Others were sent direct to boarding school or yeshivas, and those who were sick spent time in sanatoriums.
Some of the members of the Boys were lucky enough to find relatives or were taken in by foster families but the majority were moved to children’s homes known as hostels.
The religious movement Agudas ran two hostels for orthodox children, as well as the Staines Yeshiva. One was at the school in Amhurst Park Road, Stamford Hill, and the other was at 56 Queens Drive.
Ivor Wieder after the liberation.
“I moved to Amhurst Park in Stamford Hill, which was a very frum hostel. The man who ran it, Rabbi Koenigshofer, had tsuris from all of us. He used to give a shiur every Friday night and insisted we all went to it, but most of us weren’t keen, and on one occasion, one of the boys even locked him out.
There were about 20 of us in the hostel, but I don’t remember all of the boys from there. I remember Tommy Weiser, Leon Klein, and Mir Lev, who later became the Chazzan at Munks, a shul in Golders Green. Sometimes there were fights between some of the boys, but I was a good boy. I didn’t get involved! Nearly all of us had come through the Holocaust, but we didn’t talk about it. What was there to say? We all knew what had happened.”
Ivor Wieder, Where was G-d in Auschwitz? (My Voice, 2024).
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