Holocaust survivor felt 'intoxicated' by freedom

Liron Velleman's grandfather, Alec Ward, was born Abram Warszaw

In 1945, following the end of World War Two, 732 child survivors of the Holocaust were flown to Britain to help them recuperate from their ordeal.

Among them was a traumatised Polish-born teenager, Abram Warszaw, who was the only survivor from his large extended family.

He was among a group of more than 150 youngsters flown by the RAF to Stoney Cross in Hampshire, before being taken to Wintershill Hall in Durley, near Southampton.

His grandson, Liron Velleman, has since visited the stately home to see where his grandfather and the others, who became known as the Southampton Boys, found kindness and safety.

Alec Ward's family said he had experienced kindness after arriving at Wintershill

Abram, who later changed his name to Alec Ward, was born in Poland in 1927, enjoyed an ordinary childhood until war broke out and restrictions began to be imposed on Jewish families following the German invasion.

Mr Velleman said: "He spent his first couple of years in two ghettos and escaped with his younger brother.

"They lived on their own in haystacks for a number of months and eventually found a group of Jewish prisoners to join with because they had no food or anything else."

The prisoners, who had been put to work on farms, were rounded up by the SS and Mr Ward's younger brother - deemed unfit for slave labour - was shot.

Over the course of six years, Mr Ward survived three slave labour camps and two concentrations camps.

On 5 May 1945, he was among those liberated - naked and malnourished - from Mauthausen, Austria's largest Nazi death camp.

Alec Ward was flown to England following his liberation from Mauthausen

The teenager was eventually brought to the UK under a government scheme to accept 1,000 children on two-year visas, although only 732 could be found who were fit enough to travel.

Mr Velleman said: "He was starting to physically emerge from the trauma but, mentally, [he had] a long way to go.

"On 5 November 1945, he boarded the first plane of his life coming to Southampton, not knowing what England would have in store for him and not knowing the language.

"He arrived at the RAF base and they laid on a tea there on the airfield with cakes and oranges.

"He remembered, as soon as he arrived, he felt he was intoxicated with the freedom of being in England.

"He could walk where he wanted, he could ride his bicycle, and he felt everybody was extremely kind and helpful to him."

Families of the so-called Southampton Boys reunited at Wintershill Hall

The cohort of 128 boys and 28 girls who were taken to Wintershill became known as the Southampton Boys.

Mr Ward died in 2018, aged 91, and despite all he endured, he always implored others not to hate other people - a message which continues to be shared by his grandson.

Descendants of those children were reunited at the privately-owned stately home in 2023, brought together by the '45 Aid Society, a group set up to support the survivors and their families.

Mr Velleman said: "To walk through the fields of this house and feel this is where he would have run around and played football and rode his bike...

"Just seeing the joy and the happiness that we had over that weekend emulated some of the happiness our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents would have felt at that time."