Escape to Gwrych Castle: A Jewish refugee story

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In this intriguing debut, Andrew Hesketh explores the lesser-told history of the children who lived in this North Wales castle, bringing together their personal memories and experiences to create a unique picture of their lives. The event is Based in Wales' most haunted castle, which was made famous as the the home of I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here in 2020.

Deborah Katz, ‘Little-Known Holocaust History: Fleeing Germany, Then Living In A British Castle’, Jewish Press, 30 May 2019 ( https://www.

The fact that the centre was chosen as the place to host all the training schemes in October 1939 showed how much the project impressed people. The water pump, which used water from the Abergele supply, wasn’t powerful enough to provide for 200 people, meaning children had to run down to the kitchen and carry pails of water back up to their washrooms. Pick one timeslot to attend, timeslots are limited so book with your group to avoid missing out • Please arrive 10 minutes early to avoid missing your timeslot, you will not be able to attend later timeslots • Timeslots are for the walkthrough experience, once this has ended you are able to spend as long as you like in the gory grounds entertainment area • Time Slots are kept to small groups, to heighten the experience and minimise queuing • Unfortunately the event is not accessible for people in wheelchairs due to narrow corridors, uneven grounds, steps and tight spaces. Despite the fact that Gwrych was the flagship hachshara, the centre’s days were numbered and during 1941 it was allowed to decline in favour of a new centre in Birmingham.

The couple lost almost all of their family in the Holocaust and their years at the Abergele castle was a time when they could "still be children" - and also where their "real love story" began. The Maze itself contained some fantastic scenes and effects which were hugely enhanced by the castle's grand staircases and huge rooms. It was chosen again for a meeting of the leaders of Bachad and Bnei Akiva in December 1940, the first ever to be held on British soil. 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. Rabbi Sperber initiated educational programmes that focused heavily on developing the children’s religious knowledge and understanding.Gwrych Castle is an enchanting gothic ruin on the picturesque North Wales coastline, with spectacular sea views and impressive architecture. Neuware - In 2020 and 2021, at the height of the Covid pandemic, Gwrych Castle was familiar to the British public as the setting of Iâ ¿m A Celebrityâ ¿ Get Me Out Of Here! 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 lodge provides a unique opportunity to become the Lord or Lady of the Castle, and with the choice of two self-contained options!

A walk through experience, based in the grounds of what’s considered to be one of Wales’ most haunted castles, Gwrych Castle. The castle was organised into a hachshara (agricultural training centre), which were originally set up in Germany by Zionist organisations such as Youth Aliyah and Bachad to prepare youth for agricultural work in Palestine.

Use of the castle was offered for free by the owner, Lord Dundonald, since it was in very poor condition. Under trying conditions, while the families they had been separated from faced the gravest of dangers, these children and their adult guardians established a Hachshara at Gwrych Castle: a training centre intended to prepare them for the dream of establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine ( Eretz Yisrael ), where they hoped one day to be reunited with the families they left behind. 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. They feared an antisemitic response and were conscious of the fact that most of them were Germans which, in the words of one who was there, had the potential to be “upsetting” to the locals.