2022
75th Reunion with Daniel Liebeskind
2021
Westmorland Gazette – Man to present story of ‘WIndermere Children’ Holocaust survivors to United Nations.
Yorkshire Times – Wings on WIndermere.
Epping Forest – Learning about The Boys: Holocaust Survivors in the Epping Forest District.
MSN – How the lost diary of Marie Paneth reveals the real story of a Holocaust hero.
HRH Duchess Visit:
BBC news – Duchess of Cambridge takes boat trip with two surviving Windermere Children.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-58641227
ITV news – The Duchess of Cambridge visits Cumbria to highlight benefit of nature to young people.
The visit also featured in the following:
The Telegraph; The Times; The I; Daily Mail; Mirror; Express; The Sun; People; Yorkshire Post; North West Evening News; News and Star; Daily Advent; Belfast Telegraph; Global Herald; Lancs Live News; Town & Country, Yorkshire Post; News & Star; Windsor Observer; The Bharate Express; Newsfounded, Phillippines; Bangladesh Kivazen; Expats CZ; US Newschant; Hello; OK; Town & Country; Good Housekeeping; Vanity Fair……. and many others.
2020
Guardian/Observer – From Nazi Camps to the Lake District: the story of the Windermere children.
Guardian – The Windermere Children Review – How the Lakes saved the lives of Nazi Survivors.
The Telegraph – The Windermere Children Review – ‘A sad, beautiful refugee story with an ending that took the breath away’.
The Times – The Windermere Children – the story of Jewish refugees evacuated to the Lakes.
The Times – The Windermere Children – From Death camps to the Lakes: A story of hope.
Daily Mail – The Orphans who survived the Holocaust and found salvation in the Lake District.
Daily Express – Our beautiful Lake District helped heal Orphans of the Holocaust.
Daily Express – Is the Windermere Children based on a true story?
The Sun – Remarkable story of how Britain saved 300 children from the Holocaust and took them to a new life in the Lake District.
The Mirror – The Windermere Children: Emotional BBC drama follows Survivor Arek Hersh 75 years on.
The Independent – The Windermere Children Review – Drama exercises such raw emotional power that it’s impossible to get through it without crying.
The Evening Standard – BBC 2’s The Windermere Children – The true harrowing story behind the drama.
Television Business International – Writer’s Room: Imagining the unimaginable with ‘The Windermere Children’.
The Jewish Times of Israel – Windermere Children cast ‘overwhelmed’ at meeting Holocaust Survivors.
BBC Media – The Windermere Children.
Radio Times – Arek Hersh : I lost everybody.
BBC Radio Cumbria – Holocaust Memorial Day and The Windermere Children.
ITV Border TV – Holocaust Memorial Day and The Windermere Children.
BBC One Breakfast – Arek Hersh & The Windermere Children.
IMDB – The Windermere Children.
Wikipedia – The Windermere Children.
2019
BBC Four – Digging for Britain WW2 – From Troutbeck Bridge to Treblinka.
BBC Radio 4 : Sketches – Stories of Art & People.
Westmorland Gazette – TV date for Lake District Holocaust Project.
Westmorland Gazette – Famous Auschwitz Exhibition to go on display in Windermere.
Westmorland Gazette – Archaeologists unearth child’s unicorn charm at Holocaust Dig.
BBC Radio Cumbria – Neil Smith interviews Ike Alterman and Sam Laskier- Archaeological Dig.
“By the time we arrived it was already dark and they showed us into our chalets…and we couldn’t believe our eyes – each and everyone had a clean sheet and pillowcases, urinals. We couldn’t believe our eyes!”
ITV Border, Granada & Tyne Tees Television – Archaeological Dig at Troutbeck Bridge.
Westmorland Gazette – Archaeologists delve into wartime village’s secret this summer.
North West Mail – Lakes Archaeological Dig unearths Holocaust Survivors’ home.
Westmorland Gazette – Archaeologists uncover Holocaust Survivors’ story of hope.
BBC Radio Cumbria – Neil Smith interviews Caroline Sturdy Colls – Archaeological Dig.
BBC North West, North East – Arek Hersh ‘Windermere Boy’ Calgarth Estate.
BBC Radio Cumbria – Thomas Gardner for LDHP – Documentary to capture stories of Lake District links to Holocaust survivors.
Westmorland Gazette – Thomas Gardner for LDHP – Story of Holocaust link to area to be retold.
North West Evening Mail – Thomas Gardner for LDHP – Documentary to capture stories of Lake District links to Holocaust survivors.
BBC Media Centre – The Children (w/t), a powerful drama based on an extraordinary true story.
Jewish Chronicle – BBC film to tell ‘powerful’ story of children who came to the Lake District.
BBC Radio Cumbria – The Children – a drama for 2020 based on the children who came to the Lake District.
Daily Mail online – ‘Holocaust survivors freed from the horrors of the Nazis as children return to Prague to recreate photograph taken shortly after they were liberated from concentration camp’.
BBC News – ‘Prague Holocaust Survivors photo recreated’.
BBC Radio Cumbria – ‘In Prague with Trevor Avery and The 45 Aid Society’ – with News Reporter John Bowness.
Westmorland Gazette – ‘Families gather to re-stage photo’.
Westmorland Gazette – Arts Council Award ‘Above and Below the Holocaust Landscape’.
Westmorland Gazette – Awards for All ‘Reach Over the Wall’.
BBC North West, North East – ‘Rise in Hate Crime’ – interview LDHP.
ITV Border, Granada & Tyne Tees Television – ‘Rise in Hate Crime’ – interview LDHP.
BBC Radio Cumbria – ‘Rise in Hate Crime’ – interview LDHP.
Westmorland Gazette – ‘Holocaust deniers ‘taint’ project work’.
ITV Border, Granada & Tyne Tees Television – ‘Heritage Lottery Fund Grant LDHP – Archaeological Scan & Dig
BBC Radio Cumbria – Archaeological Scan & Dig – interview with Trevor Avery.
BBC Radio Stoke – Archaeological Scan & Dig – interview with Professor Caroline Sturdy Colls.
Westmorland Gazette – ‘Remains of paradise lost to be uncovered’.
Jewish Chronicle – ‘Lottery Funds dig at home of child Holocaust survivors’.
2018
Open Country – BBC Radio 4
“This was a really lovely programme, a much needed reminder that amidst all the evidence as to just how awful we can be as a species, humans can also be capable of empathy and kindness”. Sarfraz Manzoor, Pick of the Week, BBC Radio 4.
The story of the Windermere Jewish child Holocaust Survivors was sensitively and sympathetically presented by Helen Mark for Open Country and BBC Radio 4. The programme included conversations with Trevor Avery, Director of the Lake District Holocaust Project, and with Sam Laskier and Ike Alterman who talked about their arrival in the Lake District in August 1945.
“The experience in Windermere was tremendous, everyone looked after us wonderfully well”. Sam Laskier, Open Country, BBC Radio 4
“It was just wonderful to see people who actually cared” Ike Alterman, Open Country, BBC Radio 4
Kevin Coulter, from Dalton near Barrow-in Furness became ill with osteomyelitis, a serious bone infection, and was treated in the Ethel Hedley Children’s Hospital near Windermere. He befriended Mendel Preter, one of the Jewish children brought to Windermere, who was a patient in the adjoining bed. Helen Mark spoke to Kevin at the site of the former hospital and he described how he first met Mendel and some of their conversations both in 1945 and much later when Mendel contacted him by phone from America.
“He told me things which he never told anyone about his family being taken….even now I can’t grasp it”. Kevin Coulter, Open Country, BBC Radio 4
Daily Telegraph – ‘The Hidden History of the Lake District’.
BBC Cumbria – ‘School receives millions of Buttons’.
Westmorland Gazette – ‘Lakes Pupils scoop writing awards’.
Who Do You Think You Are? – Robert ‘Judge’ Rinder –
“We flew to the Lake District where my grandfather convalesced in Windermere with a bunch of other Jewish children. It is the most amazing story about what British communities can do for foreign refugees and the gift they gave”. Rob Rinder, WDYTYA, BBC One- 13 August 2018
Rob Rinder is the grandson of Morris Malenicky and in this episode he traced the contrasting experiences of two of his grandparents who came to the UK in search of a new life. Morris (Moishe) was one of the Jewish child Holocaust Survivors who arrived in the Lake District in August 1945. He had been subjected to living and working in horrendous conditions in a forced labour camp at Schlieben in Germany, and later at Buchenwald. He died in London aged 78.
“As I approach Windermere, I imagine what my grandfather Morris would have felt having coming from the dankness and greyness of Schlieben, into this – big sky, and green verdant English loveliness.” Rob Rinder, WDYTYA, BBC 1 – 13 August 2018
Rob met with Trevor Avery, in the Lake District and together they explored documents which gave some of the background to his time in Windermere and his journey to London. He was extremely moved to read a letter from Morris to Oscar Friedman, inviting Oscar – one of the main helpers in Windermere – to his wedding in London.
“No one who saw lawyer and TV “judge” Robert Rinder retrace the story of his Holocaust-survivor grandfather Maurice – who lost every member of his family to the gas chambers at Treblinka – could come away anything other than confirmed in the belief that anti-Semitism must be stamped out.” The Telegraph, 14 August 2018.
Westmorland Gazette – ‘Story of Unique Auschwitz Album goes on show’.
Northern Echo – ‘Holocaust Buttons Project Reaches Major Milestone’.
Reading Chronicle – ‘Holocaust Project reaches milestone’.
The Lakes with Paul Rose – Windermere: BBC Two – October 2018 & BBC North West
In the first in a series of four programmes about the Lake District, Paul Rose met with and talked to both Trevor Avery and Arek Hersh, one of the Jewish child Holocaust Survivors who also arrived in the Lake District in August 1945.
Arek described how wonderful it was to arrive in such a beautiful place and how the children felt “like we had arrived again”.
“We were young, we were hoping to grow up and have a future and see life as life actually is”. Arek Hersh, The Lakes.
Trevor said that even the simple act of an old man raising his cap to them, was unbelievable to the children who had spent many years under threat of death for not taking their own caps off.
“They were being treated with dignity for the first time in many years. It really was a journey from hell to paradise”. Trevor Avery, The Lakes”.
Arek spoke with some of the children about his experiences at the Lakes School in Windermere. This school was built on the former site of the Calgarth Estate and Arek, together with his wife Jean, have made an annual visit for many years to talk.
“Coming from the camps, life didn’t mean very much to certain people, and here I was liberated. I love this place, always.” Arek Hersh, The Lakes .
Jewish News – ‘Synagogue collects 200,000 buttons for Holocaust Project’.
Westmorland Gazette – ‘Judge Robert Rinder visits the Lake District to film Who Do You Think You Are?’
BBC Cumbria – ‘The Lake District Holocaust Project’.
Westmorland Gazette – Holocaust Survivor inspires leading textile artist’s new exhibition’.
Westmorland Gazette – ‘Holocaust Survivor inspires South Lakeland students’
ITV News Look Around – ‘Holocaust Memorial Day – The Lake District Holocaust Project’.
ITV Border – ‘Holocaust Memorial Day – the Lake District Holocaust Project’.
Westmorland Gazette – ‘Pupils Create Community Quilt’.
October 2016
Westmorland Gazette – ‘Film shines a light on Holocaust Survivors’.
August 2016
Westmorland Gazette – ‘LDHP hosts Ian Walton’s Breath Becomes Air Exhibition’.
July 2016
Westmorland Gazette – ‘Rare opportunity to see Memory Quilt’.
August 2015
Daily Express – ‘Auschwitz Survivors make emotional return to Lake District Village’.
“We came from Hell to Eden. A place of beauty and quiet”. Sir Ben Helfgott, Daily Express.
Jewish News – Holocaust Survivors to return to the Lake District.
Daily Express – ‘Untouched – Auschwitz greenhouses where Jewish prisoners grew flowers for the Nazis’.
Westmorland Gazette – ‘Garden helps primary pupils learn about the Holocaust’.
June 2015
Jewish News – ‘Holocaust Survivors to return to Lake District’.
January 2015
Gov.Uk- ‘Prime Minister’s Holocaust Commission Report’.
Daily Telegraph – ‘From the Holocaust to Lake Windermere’.
ITV Granada – ‘The Windermere Boys’ “It’s exactly seventy years this week since surviving prisoners walked to freedom from the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz”.
Border Television – ‘Holocaust Memorial Day, Town Hall Kendal’.
BBC North West – ‘Holocaust Memorial Day, Town Hall Kendal’.
Westmorland Gazette – ‘South Lakeland Remembers Holocaust’.
Westmorland Gazette – ‘Holocaust Survivor says he was ‘reborn’ in South Lakeland’.
“It’s the first place where I escaped the Holocaust. I remember the white tablecloths and the white beds; that’s one of my abiding memories. Everything was drab in the camps, everything was doom and gloom.” Joe Berger
May 2014
Westmorland Gazette – ‘LDHP to share its story with Downing Street’.
January 2014
Westmorland Gazette – ‘Children of the Holocaust’.
Westmorland Gazette – ‘Crowds Gather in Kendal to Remember the Holocaust’.
November 2013
BBC One – ‘The Story of the Swastika’.
Westmorland Gazette – ‘South Lakes man was one of the Chief Researchers in BBC documentary about the Swastika’.
Westmorland Gazette – ‘Paradise Route exhibition graces walls’.
September 2013
ITV Border News – ‘Holocaust Survivor speaks in Windermere’.
October 2012
Foreign & Commonwealth Office – ‘International Task Force Country Report’.
July 2012
Westmorland Gazette – ‘Holocaust Survivors inspire Children’s Paradise Art Project’.
January 2012
BBC One The One Show – ‘Trevor Avery & John Sargent – The Sunderland Flying Boats’.
August 2011
Lancashire Life – ‘The Inspiring Story of how Windermere helped 300 Jewish Children’.
January 2011
ITV Border News – ‘Holocaust Memorial Day’ – with Sue Bermange and Evelyn Westwood – Kendal Town Hall.
April 2010
BBC One -‘The Orphans Who Survived the Concentration Camps’.
“There is this gentleman in the front garden and he greets me, ‘Good morning, what a beautiful day.’ And it was a beautiful day – it was wonderful.” Minia Jay, BBC One.
BBC News –’The Orphans Who Survived the Nazi Camps’.
Jewish Chronicle –‘The Children who swapped the death camps for the Lake District’.
“It was the first time I had slept on a bed instead of a bunk for more than three years, and even longer since I had seen clean sheets. I can’t remember ever having a better night’s sleep than I enjoyed that first night in Windermere. It was only a hut I was sleeping in, but to me it was a palace.” Sir Ben Helfgott, BBC One.