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 hostels.
Gateshead was one of these hostels.
Overview
The hostel functioned between 1945 and 1948 in Gateshead, a town across the river from Newcastle in the north of England.
The old building on Bewick Road and neighbouring houses in Rectory Road were demolished to make way for a new two-storey dormitory block, Clore House, which was opened in 1963.
The Gateshead Story
The hostel was part of Gateshead Yeshiva, an Orthodox Talmudic college for religious Jewish study. Founded in 1929, the yeshiva was originally established as a branch of the Novardok network of yeshivas then existing in Eastern Europe. It is now the largest yeshiva in Europe.
“I decided to go to Gateshead although I was disappointed afterwards because it was too Orthodox for me. I attended the yeshiva in Gateshead for a short time, because In had some yeshiva background, having studied in a small Hassidic yeshiva in the Polish shtetl where I was born. But I dreamed of the Land of Israel and my goal was to get there as soon as possible. I became active in the Zionist Religious Movement, but the leaders in the Gateshead hostel did not like it, so I had to leave Gateshead, and consequently I moved to London. In 1948, when the Jewish State was proclaimed, I left England, and arrived in Israel in July 1948.”
Simon Klin, quoted in Martin Gilbert, The Boys: The Story of 732 Young Concentration Camp Survivors (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1996).
The Boys at Gateshead spoke Yiddish together. During the day, they studied the Talmud, whilst in their free time, they would go and watch football games in Newcastle.
Many of the Boys were not happy at Gateshead, especially as the orientation was anti-Zionist.
The Staff
Rabbi Dr Weiss, who met the first transport in the Windermere reception centre, was very popular among the boys and many decided to go to the yeshiva because of his influence.
Rabbi Dovid Nachman Landinski was the head of the hostel.
Elizabeth, sister of Eva Minden-Khan who was matron at Quare Mead, was the matron.
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