Northumberland Street
The hostel was in Salford, Manchester, in the north-west of England. It had previously been used to house Kindertransport children.
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 hostel was run by the religious Zionist organisation Bachad.
THE NORTHUMBERLAND STREET STORY
There was a dining room and the children queued up to be given their meals at a serving hatch. There were two sitting rooms, one of which contained a piano.
Chiel Ingielman, who was in the hostel for eighteen months, recalls visits to theatres and cinemas that were owned by members of the local Jewish community. He says, “We were given lessons in English and arithmetic each morning, and for a while they even tried to teach us French.” Ingielman also says that they washed at the public baths. This was noted by the Committee for the Care of the Concentration Camp Children, as facilities were poor in the hostel.
The Boys
We are building our online archive. If you have further information or material on this hostel, please contact ’45 Aid Society or fill in the form below.
The Staff
Franz Pinchower and his wife Fanny were the wardens
Eva, a volunteer, married Rabbi Hans Heinemann,
Miss Shlesinger was the English teacher
Mr Weinstock, who had been a captain in the British army.
Benno Penner and his wife
Vivian, a volunteer
Alice Reisz
Mr Kaufman