Holocaust survivor portrayed in film The Windermere Children to receive OBE
Harry Olmer was one of 300 children liberated from concentration camps and evacuated to the Lake District in July 1945; the BBC film about the group was shortlisted for a BAFTA
A Holocaust survivor whose post-war life in Britain was portrayed in 2020 film The Windermere Children will be made an OBE at Windsor Castle on Wednesday.
Harry Olmer survived five years of forced labour during the Second World War before becoming a dentist and father of four after being evacuated to the Lake District in July 1945.
He was one of 300 Jewish children, known collectively as “The Boys” although there were also 40 girls in their number, who were brought to the Calgarth Estate near Lake Windermere to begin new lives after the horrors of the Holocaust.
Recalling his arrival in Britain, Harry Olmer said: “It was freedom, we hadn’t known freedom in more than five years.”
BBC film ‘The Windermere Children’ tells their story, portraying a coachload of child survivors of the Nazi Holocaust who are taken to Lake Windermere (the Lake District), in 1945, carrying only the clothes they wear and a few meagre possessions. The feature, made with the assistance of the Lake District Holocaust Project in Cumbria, was originally broadcast on Holocaust Memorial Day 2020.
Also being honoured: Robert Walker, managing director of supermarket Iceland and a prospective Conservative parliamentary candidate, will be made an OBE for services to business and the environment, and two mothers who set up children’s charities after their own youngsters struggled to get support from the state.
Lynn McManus, who has five adopted children with special needs, is being made an MBE after founding Pathways4all to provide better play opportunities for disabled children on Tyneside.
Odette Mould will be made an MBE for her work as founder of Harry’s Rainbow, which supports bereaved children.
Mrs Mould’s son Harry died aged five in 2009 from a suspected asthma attack and she found it difficult to find emotional help for his twin sister Jessica.
Others receiving MBE awards include Shane Ryan, who chairs the Grenfell Young People’s Fund, which works with children affected by the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire, and Benjamin Cowley, a music therapist from Cardiff who supports people living in care homes.
In the arts, Darren Henley, chief executive of Arts Council England, and fashion designer Craig Green will be made a CBE and MBE respectively.
The Countess of Bessborough will be made an MBE after founding a centre of modern art in 60 acres of parkland in Wiltshire.
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