Windermere Children

From KPBS.org:

“The Windermere Children”

 “The Windermere Children,” a new feature-length dramatization of a remarkable true story about hope in the aftermath of the Holocaust, will air on Sunday, April 5, 2020 at 10 p.m., following the premiere of WORLD ON FIRE On MASTERPIECE.  The 90-minute film, based on the powerful first-person testimony of orphaned survivors who rebuilt their lives in the U.K. following World War II. Child survivors of the Holocaust are brought to an estate near England’s Lake Windermere to recuperate with the help of volunteer therapists. Without their families, they find kinship in each other and form bonds that give them hope for the future.  Additionally, the companion documentary, “The Windermere Children: In Their Own Words” will be available to stream via KPBS Passport.

In the year that marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II and the Holocaust, this powerful documentary reveals a little-known story of 300 young orphaned Jewish refugees who began new lives in England’s Lake District in the summer of 1945.  From BAFTA-nominated screenwriter Simon Block and BAFTA- and Emmy-winning director Michael Samuels, “The Windermere Children” is led by an incredible cast including Thomas Kretschmann ("The Pianist"), Romola Garai (THE MINIATURIST), Tim McInnerny (“Strangers”) and Iain Glen (GAME OF THRONES).  The story follows a group of child Holocaust survivors who are transported to the Calgarth Estate by Lake Windermere, England in August 1945. Carrying only the clothes they wear and a few meager possessions, they bear the emotional and physical scars of all they have suffered. Child psychologist Oscar Friedmann (Kretschmann) is charged with looking after the children. He and his team of counselors, including art therapist Marie Paneth (Garai), philanthropist Leonard Montefiore (McInnerny) and sports coach Jock Lawrence (Glen), have four months to help the children begin to heal and reclaim their lives.  They learn English, play football, ride bikes, attempt to integrate with the locals and express their trauma through painting. Haunted by nightmares, they yearn for news of their loved ones from the Red Cross, but in the absence of relatives, the children find family in each other.

Holocaust Survivors on the Kinship Formed at Windermere:  Survivors of the Holocaust recall their experience at Windermere. The strong bonds and friendships that were forged during the summer of 1945 continued throughout their lives.  The Windermere Children” is the stark, moving and ultimately redemptive story of the bonds the children make with one another, and of how the friendships forged at Windermere sustain them as they work to rebuild their lives in the U.K. 

The film will stream simultaneously with broadcast on April 5, 2020 and be available for two weeks on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS Video App for iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV and Chromecast. “The Windermere Children” will be available for purchase on DVD at ShopPBS.org. The film will also be available for digital download. Made in conjunction with the film, the powerful companion documentary “The Windermere Children: In Their Own Words” will be available to stream with KPBS Passport on all PBS digital platforms on April 3, 2020. Featuring powerful interviews from the survivors themselves, the documentary is narrated by Glen and directed by Guy Arthur and Francis Welch. 

^ I watched both “The Windermere Children” and “The Windermere Children: In Their Own Words” last night. Both told a story not many people know about. I had never heard of it before. 75 years after the end of World War 2 and the Holocaust the world is still learning new things about what happened to the victims as well as the survivors in the post-war years. ^

https://www.kpbs.org/news/2020/apr/02/windermere-children/