Windermere Boys mark 80 years since arrival with memorial garden

Four of the original Windermere Boys – a group of orphaned Holocaust survivors flown to Britain in 1945 to begin new lives – have unveiled a memorial garden to honour the 80th anniversary of their arrival in the Lake District.

Their story has been told many times, most famously in the BBC/Warner Bros drama ‘The Windermere Children‘.

Known as “The Boys”, 732 young survivors of Nazi concentration camps, boys and girls, were brought to Britain in five groups.

The largest, comprising 301 children, were flown by RAF Stirling bombers from Prague to Calgarth Estate, Windermere on 14 August 1945.

They were welcomed by the local community and began rebuilding their lives in what they called “Paradise.” Almost all had lost their entire families in the Holocaust.

Arek Hersh, Harry Olmer, Jackie Young and Bela Millan, now in their late 80s, returned for the commemoration organised by The Lake District Holocaust Project.

They were joined by members of the Second Generation of the 45 Aid Society – children of The Boys – who flew in from all over the world to continue their parents’ mission of remembrance and education.

Together, survivors and their families walked around the Estate, which is now the site of the Lakes School in Windermere, plays a prominent part in keeping the story of The Boys alive, and regularly host Boys who return to the school each year to share their experiences.

The day saw the unveiling of a powerful new memorial garden at Lakes School, on part of the original Calgarth site, donated by Trinity Catholic School.

At its heart is one of the UK’s largest Magen David designs, a lasting symbol of survival and hope.

The Lake District Holocaust Project’s director Trevor Avery, said: “This gathering marks the eightieth anniversary of the arrival of The Windermere Children to the UK.

“After suffering unimaginable horror during the Holocaust they came to a place one of them described as being “built for the Gods”. There can never have been such a change in circumstances for a group of children who had come from “Hell to Paradise”.

Angie Cohen, chairman of the ’45 Aid Society since 2015, whose late father, Moishe Malenicky, was one of The Boys, said the garden would have made him “enormously proud that he hasn’t been forgotten and their story hasn’t been forgotten”.

She added: “On this day in 1945, 300 embers were plucked from the ashes of the Holocaust and arrived in Windermere.  Here each ember was nurtured until it transformed into its own self-sustaining flame.

“I am of the second generation, who, along with many others like me, do not have the words to express my enormous appreciation to Windermere for giving my father the opportunity to experience their humanity and put him on a safe path to life. At the ceremony I spoke to locals and to my amazement they do not refer to this project in the past tense.  As I teach my children and grandchildren of my father’s story, so do they teach their younger generation of their assistance in helping the Boys.  Not as a history lesson but as a life lesson, of how to be, always.”

Mark Dichter (son of Abe Dichter), who flew from Israel for the event in Windermere, said: “May the community and their cherished work be blessed.”

Belan Millan, who was three years old when she arrived in England, says no one told them that “we’d been liberated”.

She said: “I think that made it more difficult for us because nobody had told us. Gradually, we settled down and we understood that we were going to be given proper food to eat, but we had no explanations. We’d never been in a family situation. We grew up in the camp; we were there for two years, just the six of us.

“There was no provision for us because no one believed that young children would survive – we were miracle children in a way. They wanted to separate us, like the older children. We thought, ‘No, we’re not having this.’ We’d been together for two years… we were like one person.”

Austrian-born Jackie Young, aged 83, says both of his parents were killed in Belarus and that he only found out two years ago who his father was.

“My mother and father were on the same transport to a place in Belarus… you either arrived dead in a gas van or you were shot when you arrived. I thought I was just a regular North London Jewish kid, then I got the shock at nine years old that I was adopted. My adopted grandmother told me that I was from Austria, which came to me in my teenage years. My life changed from that time, searching for my past.”

• Click here for more information on the 45 Aid Society, founded by Sir Ben Helfgott, one of ‘The Boys’