Child survivors of the Holocaust took a nostalgic trip to Essex on Sunday to visit the site of the hostel which took them in 75 years ago.
As part of a group organised by the ’45 Aid Society, the “Loughton Boys” first viewed an exhibition about their experiences which has been staged by Epping Forest District Museum before going on to Holmehurst House, the then Habonim-run property where they lived for more than a year. Now a private residence, its owners hosted the visitors for lunch.
“It was a beautiful place,” Harry Spiro reminisced. “We did all the childhood stuff we never had a chance to do because our childhood was taken away.”
Mr Spiro had survived a death march from Buchenwald to Theresienstadt, arriving in Britain in 1945 after being liberated by Soviet troops.
Jan Goldberger, a Polish Jew resettled in the grand Victorian home, told the JC he had never contemplated coming to Britain. “All we cared about was freedom.” But once they arrived at Holmehurst, it was “happy days with all the boys”, many of whom had lost their entire families. “All we had were each other. We were like brothers.”
They spoke movingly of the simple pleasures they enjoyed, from tennis to tree climbing. On a previous visit, one of the “boys” pointed out the tree under which he had his first kiss.
Also joining the trip was Ivor Perl, a Hungarian Jew liberated from Dachau, who was brought to Ascot, arriving at the entrance to the famous racecourse.
“It was like heaven” after all he had experienced.
Like many of the group, he had wanted to go to Palestine. But the British government, which at the time controlled the territory, placed strict restrictions on Jewish immigration.
In the event, his rabbi told him that to travel to Britain and seek the only safe refuge available to him was a mitzvah.
Mr Goldberger said he had “progressed wonderfully” in life after leaving Holmehurst, initially becoming a tailor before opening his own shop with compensation money from the German government.
Having never imagined he would live to adulthood, Mr Spiro spoke warmly about the imminent arrival of his fourth great-grandchild — he has nine grandchildren.
Rabbi Odom Brandman, minister of nearby Buckhurst Hill Chabad, hailed the “special connection” between the current local Jewish population and the young survivors who began to rebuild their lives there. “We have such a vibrant community all these years later,” he said.
Barrister and TV personality Robert Rinder, whose grandfather was among those resettled in Windermere, spoke emotionally of the “meaning of sanctuary”, reflecting: “On a dime life can change.”
