Escape to Gwrych Castle: A Jewish refugee story

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The rabbi also led the community’s public relations with the town of Abergele and established a good rapport with many local ministers. Gwrych Castle, where a Hachshara was being set up, was a residential training center aimed at preparing the Jewish children for life on a kibbutz in Israel, where they hoped to be reunited with their families. Gwrych Castle, where a Hachshara was being set up: a residential 'training centre' aimed at preparing the Jewish children for life on a kibbutz in Israel, where they hoped to be reunited with their families. A walk through experience, based in the grounds of what’s considered to be one of Wales’ most haunted castles, Gwrych Castle.

It was particularly impressive after being told by the owners the whole thing was built in 2 days whilst the castle was open to the public. Lesser known is that, at the beginning of the Second World War, this once-grand country house in North Wales became home to around two hundred Jewish refugee children who had been rescued from Europe on the Kindertransport. One committed a crime in the town and the castle leadership found itself in front of a local court (twice) on charges of breaking the blackout regulations. There, the people looking after the youngsters developed a successful hachshara — an agricultural training scheme — for them. During the Second World War, the castle - which was built in the early 1800s - acted as a refuge for 180 Jewish children who had come to Britain as part of the Kindertransport effort.Their presence was a subject of great interest for the local community and there were moments of friendship, mutual respect, tension, high drama and comedy as Jew and non-Jew tried to get the measure of each other. Nationally, however, after Dunkirk, the mood changed and the Gwrych community was damaged by the internment of “enemy aliens” in the summer of 1940. Prof Abrams said that the young people were being prepared for life in Israel during their time at the castle, receiving Zionist education along with their agricultural training. Having met at the castle, theirs was a real love story; they went out for another seven years and then got married at the age of 21 and had two sons.

Gwrych Castle, where a Hachshara was being set up, was a residential “training center” aimed at preparing the Jewish children for life on a kibbutz in Israel, where they hoped to be reunited with their families. The remainder came from various places, including 31 of them who arrived straight from the very final Kindertransport to escape the European mainland. Excited by the prospect of living in a castle, the children found themselves in an empty and dilapidated building, without electricity and with an unreliable water supply. According to a survey carried out by The Association of Jewish Refugees in 2007, 12 of 22 children surveyed remained in the UK after the war, with five emigrating to Palestine and four to elsewhere.

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