- Original name: The Windermere Children
- Country: Germany, UK
- Genre: drama, military
- Producer: Michael Samuels
- World premiere: January 26, 2020
- Starring: T. Kretschman, R. Garay, I. Glen, T. McInnerney, M. Sabat, F. Christopher, A. Schumacher, K. Frank, K. Swietek, M. Wroblewski and others.
- Duration: 88 minutes
Children of Windermere is a biographical drama about 300 Jewish children, refugees from World War II. The film will tell about the rehabilitation of children released from concentration camps and arrived in England. The viewer will be shown how the staff of the camp, located on the Calgarth estate, near Lake Windermere, help children get used to normal life and forget all the horrors of the Holocaust. Since the picture is based on the experiences of surviving children, one involuntarily wonders how true the story shown on the screen is. Watch the trailer for The Windermere Children, set for a 2020 release. Famous actors Ian Glen and Tim McInerney took part in the project.
IMDb rating - 7.2.
Plot
In the summer of 1945, 305 children who survived and escaped from concentration camps were taken to the shores of Great Britain. At the end of the war, Jewish refugees were released from the concentration camps. Not only were the children separated from their families for a long time, they had nowhere to return, their houses were destroyed and destroyed. Refugees came from different places: Berlin, Poland and Czechoslovakia. Many of them grew up in poverty and were not used to comfort.
Months after liberation, 10 Air Force planes were ordered to transport young refugees to Crosby-on-Eden, near Carlisle. The event was organized by the World Jewish Relief Fund, which was then known as the Central Fund for German Jewry. Leonard Montefiore, a prominent Jewish philanthropist, successfully lobbied the government to let Jewish children into the UK.
The first group of children was from the Theresienstadt camp. It is believed that the Cambrian village was chosen for its favorable climate. At Lake Windermere, children have “healed” the trauma of their past through painting and art therapy. They also learned English, rode bicycles and played football. Gradually, the children began to get better.
In Windermere, they were cared for by a whole team of educators:
- Oskar Friedmann, child psychologist, led the team;
- He was accompanied by art therapist Marie Paneth and sports trainer Jock Lawrence.
Where are the Windermere children now?
Many of Windermere's real children have grown up and become successful in life:
- Ike Alterman built a career as a jeweler and diamond miner.
- Sam Laskier settled in Manchester with his wife Blanche.
- HuffPost said one of the things that helped him in Windermere was that everyone had one thing in common. Despite the fact that the children came from different parts of the world, they were all united by common suffering. Because of this, they felt like a big family.
- Sir Ben Helfgott was a prisoner in three concentration camps before reaching Windermere. He is honored to be one of two Jewish athletes who competed in the Olympics after surviving the Holocaust. Ben represented Great Britain in weightlifting at the 1956 and 1960 Olympics. He also won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games. Ben received a knighthood in 2018 from Prince Charles for Holocaust memory and education.
Production
Director - Michael Samuels ("Every Man's Heart", "Missing in Action").
Show Team:
- Screenplay: Simon Block (The Doctor: Avicenna's Apprentice, Lewis);
- Producers: Alison Sterling ("Poirot"), S. Block, Ben Evans ("Desperate Romantics") others;
- Operator: Wojciech Shepel (Trial of God);
- Artists: Ashley Jeffers (Game of Thrones), Ana Magarao (Agatha and the Truth About Murder), Maggie Donnelly (On Duty) and others;
- Editing: Victoria Boydell (Goodbye Christopher Robin);
- Music: Alex Baranovsky (Frankenstein: Cumberbatch).
Production
Studios:
- BBC Television Center.
- Northern Ireland Screen 3. Wall to Wall Television Ltd.
- Warner Bros. International Television Production.
- Warner Bros. Television Productions UK.
- Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF).
Filming location: Glenarm, Northern Ireland, UK.
Cast
Cast:
Interesting Facts
Did you know that:
- The German ZDF documentary series "Story" depicted several former children. One of them is Bela, the leader of a group of three-year-olds who arrived in Windermere completely bewildered and speechless.
- Five of the former children appear at the end of the film looking out over Lake Windermere.
- Most of the refugees were boys, but there were about 40 girls.
The new film, The Windermere Children, with a 2020 release date, will show how children brought from concentration camps to the quiet paradise of the Lake District have learned to adapt to a new peaceful life.