Project focusing on Windermere Shoah survivors ‘growing year by year’

Lake District Holocaust Project's director made his comments ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day, following the release of an award-winning documentary about The Boys

24 January 2021, 11:31 am

Survivors with actors who portrayed them during the Windermere Children BBC drama. Pictured from left to right, Chaim ‘Harry’ Olmer, Kacper Swietek, Arek Hersh MBE, Tomasz Studzinski, Pascal Fischer, Sir Ben Helfgott, Marek Wrobelewski, Sam Laskier, Kuba Sprenger, Ike Alterman (Credit: Wall to Wall/ZDF / Helen Sloan)

The Lake District Holocaust Project has said the power of the story about Jewish children taking refuge in an iconic national park after fleeing Nazi Germany is “growing year by year”.

Director Trevor Avery was speaking ahead of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day and following the 2020 release of the award-winning documentary ‘The Windermere Children’, which scooped prizes around the world.

The documentary is being broadcast on BBC Four on 27 January 2021 and on PBS in the United States, after winning the Prix Europa in Berlin for Best Television Drama in Europe.

Based on a 1946 book called ‘Rock the Cradle’ by Marie Paneth, a carer who looked after 300 child survivors on the Calgarth Estate by Lake Windermere, it shows the preparations for their arrival as well as their lakeside experiences in the summer and autumn of 1945.

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“Momentum is growing year by year, even during the pandemic,” said Avery.

“It is testament to how powerful the story is, and how we need to see that people are incredibly resilient and have the capacity to recover from even the most horrific circumstances.

“The story of the children is uplifting, their personal qualities are totally praiseworthy and also the part that the area and the local community played in their recovery is utterly heart-warming.”