From Auschwitz to Ambleside

On a recent visit to the Lake District we were intrigued by an exhibition in Windermere Library telling the moving story of a group of children who came to be known as "The Windermere Boys".  In August 1945, a group of Jewish children arrived to stay in hostels on Calgarth Estate, just outside of the village of Windermere.  When the Second World War ended in Europe in May 1945, confirmation began to emerge of what some already knew and others suspected - a particularly terrible event had happened in Occupied Europe.  The event became to be known as The Holocaust and it described the killing of approximately six million Jews during World War 2 as part of a deliberate extermination campaign, planned and carried out by the National Socialist regime in Germany led by Adolf Hitler.  Other groups were persecuted by the Nazis, including Roma, Soviets (particularly prisoners of war), ethnic Poles, other Slavic people, the physically or mentally disabled, gay men, some religious groups such as Jehovah's Witnesses and those who disagreed with the ruling regime. 

The Jewish children who arrived in the Lake District in 1945 were orphans who'd survived the War even though most of their family members had been murdered in the programme of persecution.  They were brought to Britain after the British Government had offered to accept 1,000 Jewish children to help them build a new life, but of an estimated 1.5 million children who'd been incarcerated in The Holocaust only 729 children could be found to send to Britain.  It was 300 of these children who came to Windermere in the summer of 1945.

Many of the young men have since spent their adult lives in the North West of England, many of them having married local girls. Some moved to nearby Manchester, some founding successful businesses and others having been prominent in civic life and community life!

If you visit the Lake District, have a look at the interesting exhibition in Windermere Library.  It's titled "From Auschwitz to Ambleside" and offers a unique insight into some recent local history that reminds us of the horrors of war and its effects on a whole generation of young people.

Nadine and Mike Smith

December 2013