Wellington Street

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. Wellington Street was one of these hostels.

Overview

The hostel was in Manchester in the north west of England. It was run by the religious Zionist organisation Bachad and overseen by Rabbi Weingarten of the Staines Yeshiva.

Manchester was an important hub for Jewish refugees who came to the UK. In the 1930s almost 8,000 Jewish refugees arrived in the city. The Manchester Jewish Refugees Committee, which had been set up in 1938, oversaw the running of the hostel. Its chairman was Rachel Barash.

The Wellington Street Story

The hostel was closed when 14 of the boys opted to go to the Staines Yeshiva.

There were arguments over the closure of this hostel between the Committee for the Care of the Concentration Camp Children and Bachad who did not want to close it. The committee considered the hostel to be in very bad repair.