Jewish Relief Unit (JRU)

The Jewish Relief Unit (JRU) was the British Jewish humanitarian body deployed to Europe under the Jewish Committee for Relief Abroad. It worked closely with the Central British Fund (CBF), the American Joint Distribution Committee, UNRRA, and the British army in caring for survivors who would later become members of the Boys.

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

Led by Bachad activist Shalom Markovitz, the JRU urgently sought entry into Germany, particularly the former Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, as conditions were catastrophic. Despite repeated pleas, the JRU were not permitted entry until 21 June 1945, six weeks after liberation. They were the first Jewish civilian aid workers to arrive at the camp.

The JRU cared for child survivors, organised education and welfare, supported DP camp administration, and worked closely with UNRRA and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. They established a children’s home, organised food distribution, set up makeshift clinics, ran religious services, and began the process of psychological and educational rehabilitation. The JRU also liaised with the CBF hostels and briefed staff in the UK in preparation for child survivors expected to arrive.

Staff

Many volunteers were young British Jews who had grown up in Zionist or youth-movement settings (including Bachad, Habonim, and Hechalutz).

Shalom Markovitz, head of the first JRU team in Belsen, was a leader in the religious Zionist youth movement Bachad. He was instrumental in both the Boys’ care and their transfer to the UK.

Helen Balmuth (later Bamber) joined Markovitz’s JRU team in 1945 as a young welfare worker. She later became a renowned psychotherapist and human rights activist.

Eva Kahn-Minden, a nurse, later became matron of the Quare Mead hostel in the UK.

Sadie Rurka (later Hofstein), a nursery assistant, became matron of the children’s home (Kinderheim) in Belsen-Hohne, responsible for 83 unaccompanied children—including all 47 Belsen Boys who later travelled to Britain.

The JRU and the Belsen Boys

From the moment they arrived, JRU workers found themselves drawn into complex political struggles among survivors, British authorities, and Zionist leadership. The Central Committee of Liberated Jews, led by Josef Rosensaft, initially opposed sending the Belsen children to the UK, fearing they would be delayed or diverted from reaching Palestine. Meanwhile, the British government — still enforcing the 1939 White Paper limiting Jewish immigration to Palestine — resisted any solution that might strengthen Zionist claims. JRU workers on the ground, who believed the children needed urgent medical evacuation to Britain, were caught in the middle.

This tension reached its peak in autumn 1945, when the first group of Belsen children was finally approved for transfer to the UK. Rurka recalled fierce opposition from Rosensaft and the camp rabbis, until the intervention of David Ben-Gurion, who assured survivors that a temporary stay in Britain would not jeopardise the children’s path to a Jewish homeland. It was partly due to the advocacy of JRU staff — and the determination of the children themselves — that the group was allowed to fly to Britain from Celle in August 1945.

After 1946, the JRU continued its work in the DP camps, though its influence diminished as the camps were reorganised and as survivors increasingly left for Palestine, the United States, and other destinations.