Background

Jews settled in the area around Dęblin in the 18th century. Until the partition of Poland in 1795, when the town became part of the Russian empire, Dęblin was called Modrzyce and was home to the rabbinical Taub family.

Dęblin has always been an important military town and in 1926 the biggest airport in Poland was built there. It was a centre for the training of fighter pilots. Dęblin was also an important railway junction.

There were several Jewish bakeries in the town and Jews owned the soda factory, a brewery and the timber mill. A Jewish weekly newspaper was published in Dęblin from 1929 until the outbreak of World War II.

The industrial city of Częstochowa in southwest Poland is famous for the Catholic icon the Black Madonna but, before the Holocaust, it was also home to a lively Jewish community.

Częstochowa played a role in many of the Boys lives as a large number passed through the HASAG labour camp and from there were deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. It illustrates the importance of slave labour in their survival but is also significant as it was through this period that many close friendships among the Boys were formed.

Pre-war

When World War II broke out, 28,500 Jews lived in Częstochowa. They played an active part in industry, banking, civic and commercial life. The city was also a centre for doll manufacturing and many of the toy companies belonged to Jewish families.

Częstochowa was also an important centre of Hasidism and Zionist movements. A Jewish agricultural training farm and a trade school operated in Częstochowa during the interwar years preparing young Jews for life in the Palestine Mandate. There was also a network of religious and secular Jewish schools, as in most large Jewish communities in Poland.

Wartime

The Germans entered Częstochowa on Sunday, 3 September 1939 and persecution of the city’s Jews began immediately.

A ghetto was established on 9 April 1941. Some 20,000 Jews, including a large number from Kraków, Łódź and Płock and the nearby villages were also imprisoned in the Częstochowa Ghetto.

The German company HASAG ran a series of labour camps in the city, in which many of the Boys worked as slave labourers prior to deportation to the Buchenwald and Ravensbruck concentration camps in Germany.

During World War II, HASAG became a Nazi arms-manufacturing conglomerate with dozens of factories across German occupied Europe using slave labour on a massive scale. HASAG employed women as well as men.

There was a little known underground resistance movement in the ghetto that maintained close contact with the Jewish Fighting Organisation in the Warsaw Ghetto.

Liberation

When the Red Army liberated Częstochowa, 5,000 Jews were still living in the area.

In June 1946, 2,167 Jews were living in Częstochowa. After the establishment of the state of Israel, many Jews left Częstochowa and, after the Polish Communist Party’s antisemitic campaigns of the 1960s, nearly all the remaining Jews left the city.

Until World War II, Będzin in southern Poland had a vibrant Jewish community. In 1938, the town’s Jewish population numbered around 22,500.

After World War I, Będzin Jews worked in iron-ore mining and metal production. Most Jews earned their livelihoods as merchants and craftsmen. They also owned chemical works and factories making paints, candles, and buttons.

“Today you have to go on-line to see the places I remember. Kazimerz’s castle is still as a ruin, but it was a ruin when I was a kid. I remember the old market square, with its cattle, its horses, its chickens and coloured awnings of the stalls. When I was four they knocked down the nineteenth-century railway station and built a new one, all flat roofs and modern detailing, in the Art Deco movement that was sweeping all Europe. The Third May Square had a huge Art Deco statue in the centre of its tree-lined circle, a naked woman reaching into the clouds. There were trams and buses, trucks and the occasional car to remind us all that the twentieth century was here.”

Sam Pivnik, Survivor: the Death March, and My Fight for Freedom’ (2016).

Pivnik was born at Modzejowska ul. 77.

Wartime

On 5 September 1939, the German Army entered Będzin. The SS burned down the Great Synagogue, murdering 200 Jews inside. The surrounding Jewish homes also went up in flames. Those trying to escape were burned alive or shot.

In early 1940, a ghetto was established in the town. At its peak, the ghetto’s population reached approximately 27,000. To find out more about the Będzin Ghetto and see the collection of propaganda photographs from the ghetto click here.

Jewish Resistance

The Jewish underground resistance in Będzin became active at the beginning of 1940. In August 1943, during the last deportation, Jewish resistance fighters staged an armed revolt that lasted several days. One of the leaders killed in the uprising was the leading female Jewish partisan, Frumka Plotnicka, who had previously fought in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. All the resistance fighters were killed in the action.

Deportation

In the summer of 1943, most of the Jews in Będzin were deported to Auschwitz. The Będzin Ghetto was liquidated in August 1943.

Liberation

In January 1945, Będzin was liberated by the Red Army. Jews began to come back to the area, some intending to return to their homes.

More than 1,000 Będzin Jews survived the war, some of whom were in hiding, given help by local Poles.

In 1946, the Jewish population of Będzin numbered 150 people. Although some Jewish survivors resettled after the war, all of them later left. By the 1970s, there was little to no Jewish life remaining.

Present-day

Just a handful of Jews live in Będzin today.

Velykyi Boychik is a village in the Zakarpattia Oblast region in south-western Ukraine, close to the border with Romania. The town is known as Velky Bockov in Czech, Nagybocsko in Hungarian, Bocicoiu Mare in Romanian and Bitshkof in Yiddish. It is 11km from Solotvyno and about 38km from Tyachiv both also home to members of the Boys.

Until the end of World War I, Velky Bockov was part of Austro-Hungary. Between the interwar period it was part of Czechoslovakia. During World War II, the region was occupied by Hungary. At the end of the war it became part of the Soviet Union.

Pre-war

Jews probably settled in Velky Bockov in the first half of the 18th century.

Two families were registered as living in the village in 1728, after which there was no record of Jews for over a century. This was probably due to the death of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Josef II in 1790. He had granted certain privileges and freedom of worship to the Jews through his “edict of tolerance”, issued in 1782. After his death, however, there were attempts to banish Jews from the region. There was then no record of Jews in Velky Bockov until the mid-19th century.

In 1880, the Jewish population was 520, out of a total population of 3,605. By 1921, during the Czechoslovakian period, the Jewish population rose to 1,092.

Jewish families earned their livelihood mainly through trade and crafts. A number of Jews were professionals and government officials. The Zionist youth organisations were active and had branches in Velky Bockov.

In 1941, the Jewish population was 1,708.

Occupation

Following the Munich Agreement in 1938, Czechoslovakia was divided up, and in March 1939, Velky Bockov and the surrounding area were annexed by Hungary. Velky Bockov was now known by it Hungarian name of Nagybocskó.

The Hungarians imposed laws restricting Jewish access to education, trade, and the professions. Jewish businesses were taken over by Hungarians but many remained closed.

Josef Perl was eight years old in 1938. The Czech teachers in his school were dismissed and replaced with Hungarian teachers:

“When we arrived at school, instead of sitting in our usual places with our friends, we were told where to sit. We were all, Jews and Christians alike, confused and bewildered. Suddenly we were told we were different, and that we were to be segregated. Jews sat on one side of the classroom and Christians sat on the other. It soon became evident that these new teachers were indoctrinating the non-Jewish children to hate us. Our calm, happy, peaceful world was shattered.

Older children began to harass Jewish children and to make our lives miserable, waiting for us outside school and beating us up as we left.”

Josef Perl, Faces in the Smoke: The Story of Josef Perl (2001).

In 1940, dozens of Jews from Nagybocskó were drafted into labour battalions as forced labourers. Many died on the eastern front.

In the summer of 1941, the Hungarian authorities identified as “alien” more than 100 Nagybocskó Jewish families unable to prove Hungarian citizenship, mainly the poorest ones, and deported them to Kamianets-Podilskyi in German occupied Ukraine, where they were murdered in August 1941.

In March 1944, the Nazis occupied Hungary. At the beginning of April of that year all the Jews in Hungary were ordered to wear a yellow badge. In the same month, Jews from Nagybocskó were forced into the local synagogue, where they were kept for three days before being taken to the Mátészalka Ghetto in present-day Hungary. They were deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp in late May, 1944.

When the trains arrived in Birkenau a selection was made on the ramp. It offered healthy young men and women a chance of survival as they were often selected for slave labour.

An estimated 85% of the Jews of Transcarpathia perished in the Holocaust. The fact that they arrived six months before the camp was liberated in January 1945, greatly increased their chance of survival if they were selected for slave labour.

Liberation

In the autumn of 1944, the Soviet Red Army entered Nagybocskó and liberated it from the Germans.

In 1945, after World War II, Transcarpathia was annexed by the Soviet Union. Nagybocskó became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and was from then onwards has been known as Velykyi Bychkiv.

The majority of the Jews from Velykyi Bychkiv were murdered in Auschwitz and most survivors settled elsewhere. A small Jewish community existed here until 1950.

Present-day

In 2016, Velykyi Bychkiv had about 9,300 inhabitants. No Jews live there today

Veľka Sevljus is situated in the region known as Transcarpathia. It is 19km west of Khust near the border with Romania and Hungary.

Until the end of World War I, Veľka Sevljus belonged to Austro-Hungary. During the period between the two World Wars it was part of Czechoslovakia. In the course of World War II the town was occupied by Hungary. At the end of the war the region became part of the Soviet Union.

Pre-war

The first Jews probably settled in Veľka Sevljus in the first half of the 18th century. Under the Austro-Hungarians, Jews specialised in the production and export of wine. 

Most of the city’s trade was in Jewish hands. Jews also owned banks, flour mills, distilleries, a canning factory and a number of farms. There were also Jewish doctors, veterinarians, lawyers and engineers. A few were administrative officials.

During the interwar period, Zionists were active in Sevljuš and in 1921 the Jewish National Party won 11 of the 36 seats in the municipal council. The Maccabi sports club had a branch in Sevljus, and there were many youth movements in the city, who sent their members to training farms and factories to prepare for emigration to the Palestine Mandate.

The Jewish population of Sevljus grew significantly after World War I, reaching 2,913 in 1921 and 4,262, out of a total of 13,331, or 32%, by 1941.

Occupation

Following the Munich Agreement in 1938, Veľka Sevljus and the surrounding area were occupied and then annexed by Hungary. The town was now known by its Hungarian name, Nagyszőlős.

The Hungarians imposed laws restricting Jewish access to education, trade, and the professions. Many Jews were persecuted and pushed out of their occupations. Jewish businesses were taken over by Hungarians but many remained closed.

In 1940, hundreds of Jews were drafted into labour battalions for forced labour on the eastern front, where many died. In August 1941, dozens of Jewish families without Hungarian citizenship were expelled to Kamianets-Podilskyi in German occupied Ukraine, where many were murdered in mass shootings.

Deportation 

In March 1944, the Germans occupied Hungary. In April 1944, on the last day of Passover, 12,000 Jews from Nagyszőlős and the surrounding districts were forced to move into the Nagyszollos Ghetto (to find out more click here). Between 20 May and 3 June 1944, the Jews in the ghetto were deported to Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp in three transports among them members of the Boys and their families.

Liberation

In the autumn of 1944, the Soviet Red Army entered Nagyszőlős. After World War II, the Carpathians were annexed to the Soviet Union in 1945. Nagyszollos is now known as Vynohradiv.

Most of the surviving Jews who returned to the town after the war soon left, as it was not possible to practice religious observance under Stalinism and Zionist politics could lead to arrest.

Present-day

Today, Vynohradiv is an industrial city with a population of over 25,000 but no Jews live there

Until the end of World War I, Tiachiv was part of the Austro-Hungary. During the period between the two World Wars it was incorporated in the state of Czechoslovakia. During World War II, it was occupied by Hungary. At the end of the war it became part of the Soviet Union.

Pre-war

Jews have lived in the town since at least the 17^th century. For a period, they were expelled from the region, but returned in 1840 when the limitation on Jewish settlement in Hungary was revoked. The Jews of the region were among the poorest in Europe, many living in rural areas and working in agriculture.

In the 1870s a Jewish cemetery was consecrated and in 1880 there were 321 Jews living in the town. In 1895 the synagogue and prayer house were consecrated, as well as a yeshiva.

Until the beginning of World War I, the community steadily developed; in 1910 it numbered 839 Jews. 

After the war, when Transcarpathia was included in the new Czechoslovak republic and Jews from Moravia and Bohemia settled in the region. In the 1930 census 1,431 Jews, (94%) of 1,525 Tiachiv’s Jews, declared themselves as Jews by religion as well as by nationality and 6% by religion only.

In 1941, there were 2,150 Jews in Tiachiv.

Occupation

Following the Munich Agreement in 1938, Czechoslovakia was divided up and Tiachiv and the surrounding area were annexed by Hungary, and formally incorporated in 1939. The town was then known by its Hungarian name of Tesco.

The Germans occupied Hungary in March 1944.

Jews in Tecso were subjected to discrimination during the Hungarian occupation. Incidents of verbal and physical antisemitism became an everyday occurrence. Those who could not produce Hungarian citizenship were expelled, and in July 1941 about ten Jewish families were deported to Kamianets-Podilskyi in Nazi occupied Poland, where they were murdered in mass shootings. Others were conscripted into labour battalions and perished on the eastern front.

Deportation

In May 1944, most of the Jews of the district were forced into the ghetto of Mátészalka in present-day Hungary and deported to Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp.

An estimated 85% of the Jews from the region perished in the Holocaust. However, the fact that the Transcarpathian Jews arrived six months before the camp was liberated in January 1945, greatly increased their chance of survival.

Liberation

Tecso was liberated in the autumn of 1944 by the Red Army. 

In 1945, Tecso became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic within the Soviet Union. Many Jews felt there was no future for them under Stalinism and most of the community left. The town is now known Tiachiv.

Present-day

During the early 1970s, most of Tiachiv’s remaining Jews left for Israel. In the 1980s.

Svaliava is located on the Latorica river, about 25km northeast of Mukachevo, in the Transcarpahian region.

Until the end of World War I, Svaliava was part of Austro-Hungary. During the period between the two World Wars it was incorporated into the state of Czechoslovakia. In the course of World War II it was occupied by Hungary. At the end of the war it became part of the Soviet Union.

Pre-war

Jews probably settled in Svaliava in the first half of the 18th century. In 1830, the Jewish population was 45. By 1880, the Jewish population was 319, out of a total population of 1,664.

The Jews of Transcarpathia were among the poorest in Europe, many living in rural areas and working in agriculture. Jews earned their livelihoods from trade and crafts. They worked mainly as traders and craftsmen, particularly as carpenters, blacksmiths, tailors, cobblers, glazers, tinsmiths, brush makers and painters.

At the beginning of the 20th century, two sawmills were built in order to establish a local furniture industry, as well as a chemical factory for wood, alcohol, acetone, and glue, employing Jewish workers. In 1921, during the Czechoslovakian period, the Jewish population of Svaliava rose to 1,099.

By 1941, the Jewish population rose to 1,423, out of a total population of 8,400.

Occupation

Following the Munich Agreement in 1938, Czechoslovakia was divided up and Svaliava and the surrounding area were annexed by Hungary, before being formally incorporated into Hungary in 1939. The town became known as Szolyva in Hungarian.

The Jews of Szolyva were subjected to discrimination under the Hungarian occupation. Many Jews were persecuted and pushed out of their occupations.

In 1940, 150 Jews from Szolyva were drafted into forced labour battalions for service on the eastern front, where most died.

In August, 1941, a number of Jews, who could not prove their Hungarian citizenship, were expelled to Kamianets-Podilskyi in German occupied Poland, where they were murdered in mass shootings.

The Germans occupied Hungary in March 1944.

Deportation

In April 1944, the Jews of Szolyva were gathered in the synagogue; from there they were taken to the ghetto in Mukachevo. On 22 May 1944, over 1,000 Jews from Szolyva, were deported to Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp.

An estimated 85% of the Jews of Transcarpathia perished in the Holocaust.

Liberation

After World War II, Szolyva became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Many Jews felt there was no future for them under Stalinism and either did not return to their homes or decided to flee westwards.

Present-day

No Jews live there today.

Solotvyno is a village in the Zakarpattia Oblast region in south-western Ukraine. It is south-east of Khust and close to the border with Romania. The village’s Ukranian name, Solotvyno, comes from its salt-mining heritage, and refers to the nearby salt mine – sol means salt in Ukranian.

Until the end of World War I, Slatinske-Doly belonged to the Austro-Hungary. During the period between the two World Wars it was part of Czechoslovakia. During World War II, it was occupied by Hungary. At the end of the war it became part of the Soviet Union.

Pre-war

Jews probably settled in Slatinske-Doly in the first half of the 18th century.

An organised Jewish community appeared in the early 19th century, maintaining various welfare and charity institutions. In 1830, the Jewish population was 218, rising to 674 in 1880 out of a total population of 3,642. By 1921, during the Czechoslovakian period, the Jewish population reached 1,785. Jews owned 65 businesses and shops and flour factories. A few were white-collar workers and professionals.

In 1941, the Jewish population increased to 2,537. Zionist and religious political parties were especially active.

Occupation

Following the Munich Agreement in 1938, Czechoslovakia was divided up and, in March 1939, Slatinske-Doly and the surrounding area were annexed by Hungary. The town became known as Aknaszlatina in Hungarian.

The Hungarians imposed laws restricting Jewish access to education, trade, and the professions. Many Jews were persecuted and pushed out of their occupations. Jewish businesses were taken over by Hungarians but many remained closed.

In 1940, dozens of Jews from Aknaszlatina were drafted into Hungarian labour battalions for forced labour or service on the eastern front, where many died.  In August 1941, a few Jewish families without Hungarian citizenship were expelled to Kamianets-Podilskyi in Nazi occupied Poland (modern-day Ukraine), where they were murdered.

Deportation

In March 1944, the Nazis occupied Hungary.

At the beginning of April 1944 all the Jews in Hungary were ordered to wear a yellow badge on their clothes. In the same month, 2,044 Jews from Aknaszlatina, and another 3,000 Jews from the surrounding area were transferred to an improvised ghetto. They were deported to the Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp in late May 1944.

Liberation

In the autumn of 1944, the Soviet Red Army entered Aknaszlatina. A few dozen surviving families returned after their liberation, but most chose to leave.

In 1945, after World War II, Transcarpathia was annexed by the Soviet Union. Aknaszlatina became part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and is now known as Solotvyno.

Present-day

In 2013, only three Jews were recorded to be living in Solotvyno.

Rachiv was in the most easterly part of Czechoslovakia in the inter-war period. Today, it is part of western Ukraine and is located close to the Romanian border.

Until the end of World War I, Rachiv was part of the Austro-Hungary. During the period between the two World Wars it was incorporated into the state of Czechoslovakia. In the course of World War II it was occupied by Hungary. At the end of the war it became part of the Soviet Union.

Pre-war

Jews settled in Rachiv in the 1860s but had lived for far longer in the surrounding villages.

As in many towns and cities in Transcarpathia, Jews predominated in Rachiv’s commercial life. The town had a multi-ethnic population made up of Ruthenians, Hungarians, Schwarbs and Jews.

Jews were active in local politics and the town had Jewish doctors, lawyers and dentists. In the interwar period both Zionist and religious political parties, primarily Agudas Israel, were active in the town and a number of Rachiv’s Jews emigrated to Palestine but many who hoped to do so were prevented by the introduction of the British 1939 White Paper that restricted Jewish immigration into the Palestine Mandate, which was then part of the British empire.

In 1941 the population of Rachiv was 12,455 of which 1,707 were Jewish.

Occupation

Following the Hungarian occupation in 1938, the town became known as Rahö. Some of the town’s Jews fled into the Soviet Union. Some were the first to join the Czechoslovak brigade that fought against the Nazis on the eastern front in 1941 but others were arrested and shot as spies.

In March 1939, the Hungarians occupied the region and imposed laws restricting Jewish access to education, trade, and the professions.

Many Jewish men were drafted into slave labour battalions as forced labour on the eastern front. Jews who could not prove that they had Hungarian citizenship were deported to Poland and many were murdered there by the SS in mass.

In March 1944, the Germans invaded Hungary.

Deportation

The day after Passover, 16 April 1944, the Germans and Hungarian police began a general roundup of all Rachiv’s Jews. The Jews were held in the school opposite the town council building while it took eight days to complete the roundup.

On the ninth day they were all taken to the train station and sent to the ghetto, more akin to a camp, in Mátészalka, almost 200km away in modern-day Hungary. This was the first transport to arrive in Mateszalka.

The Jews of Rachiv spent a month here with 17,000 other Jewish people. They were then deported to the Auschwitz II-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp. Eyewitnesses say the Jews of Rachiv fought back after the selection.

It is estimated that about 1,200 of Rachiv’s Jews died at Auschwitz or in other concentration camps.

Liberation

Rachiv was liberated by the Red Army in the autumn of 1944. As the Nazi concentration camps were liberated in 1945, a handful of survivors returned to Rachiv. Most of the survivors found that their home’s occupied by strangers.

Transcarpathia was annexed to the Soviet Union in 1945 and the town was renamed Rakhiv. Most of Rakhiv’s Jews were either very religious and or Zionists. It was not possible to practice religious observance under Stalinism and Zionist politics could lead to arrest. As a result, most survivors chose to leave the region.

A few Jews remained in Rakhiv, but the overwhelming majority left for Israel in the 1970s.

Present-day

The town has a population of around 15,000 and no Jews live there today.

Although only four of the Boys came from Prague, the great majority of them passed through the Czech capital city on their way to the UK. Prague played a central role in the story of the Boys, four of the five groups of the Boys left from the city.

The first of the Boys were flown to Britain from Prague in August 1945. The third and fourth groups of the Boys also travelled to the UK from the Czech capital 1946. The fifth group left in 1948.

Many of the Boys were also repatriated by the British to Prague after liberation in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Part of the Austro-Hungary until 1918, Prague then became the capital of Czechoslovakia until 1993, when the country split in two and was divided into Czechia and Slovakia.

Prague is home to one of Europe’s longest-standing Jewish communities. Jews have lived in Prague and the surrounding region since the 10th century.