Tuesday, January 27, marked Holocaust Memorial Day, an international Memorial Day to remember the six million victims of the Holocaust.
To commemorate the memory of those victims, Epping Forest District Museum has curated a display to tell the story of the Loughton Boys.
From December 1945 until January 1947, Holmehurst, a house on the borders of Buckhurst Hill and Loughton, became the home to a small group of young Holocaust survivors who became known as the ‘Loughton Boys’.
The Loughton Boys were born in the late 1920s and early 1930s from Polish Jewish families.
After Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Polish Jews were rounded up into ghettos and the Loughton Boys were subsequently sent to forced labour camps where work was hard and dangerous, food was scarce and punishments were brutal.
The Loughton Boys were frequently moved from camp to camp over the next two years until the Red Cross took control with Liberation by the Soviet Troops two days later.
By this point, many of the Loughton Boys were already suffering from severe malnutrition and various diseases.
With their homes, families and communities in Poland destroyed and years of their education lost, the Central British Fund for German Jewry (CBF) stepped in to help.
The Loughton Boys were taken to Windermere in the Lake District to begin the process of mental and physical rehabilitation, supported by an experienced team of adult professionals.
Following their initial recovery, the young survivors were split into smaller groups and sent to Jewish-run hostels around the country.
The last group to leave Windermere came to Holmehurst. At Holmehurst, the Loughton Boys continued their education and made plans for their future life and careers.
They undertook training, education and apprenticeships and continued to bond over sports, games and holidays.
The Loughton Boys had all been granted two-year temporary visas to stay in Britain, with the idea that many would go on to make homes abroad in Palestine or the United States.
Some eventually settled abroad, whereas many wanted to stay in Britain, including Ben Helfgott who went on to become a bronze and gold medal winning weightlifting champion for Great Britain.
The display can be viewed in Epping Forest District Museum’s ‘People’ Gallery on the second floor.
The Museum is open on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays from 10am until 4pm. Entry is on a pay-what-you-can basis.
- Amy Stock is collections officer at Epping Forest District Museum (efdmuseum.org.uk/).
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