Deutsch was born in 1929 in Berehove in the Carpathian Mountains, which were then in the most easterly part of Czechoslovakia. In 1938, there were around 6,500 Jews living in Berehove.
Deutsch was a member of a group of Holocaust survivors known as the Boys, despite the fact the group consisted of over 200 girls.
The Boys were teenage and child-Holocaust survivors, who were brought to the UK after World War II for rest and rehabilitation.
Members of the Boys were held in Nazi labour and concentration camps and used as slave labourers. They had also survived World War II in hiding or as lone children.
Nothing is known about his childhood or his family.
Slave Labour
It is likely that in 1944 Deutsch was imprisoned in a ghetto set up at the brick factory of Vari with 12,000 other Jews from Berehove and the surrounding area.
All of the inmates at the ghetto were deported to Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp in occupied Poland in 1944.
A New Life
Deutsch was brought to the UK in March 1946 in the third group of the Boys. Part of this group was brought to the Millisle hostel in Northern Ireland and were known as the ‘Hungarian Group’. Millisle is a small village not far from Belfast.
Deutsch lived in London with his brother Zoltan Deutsch and worked as a jeweller.
On 28 June 1951 he sailed with his brother for Canada from Southampton on the Scythia.
Deutsch died in 1984 in Montreal.
Ignac Deutsch’s Journey 1944-1946
Pre-war Life: Berehove, Czechoslovakia. Forced Journey: → Unknown. After liberation: → Prague, Czechoslovakia → Joins 3rd Group of the Boys → Millisle, Northern Ireland, UK.
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