TV Review The Windermere Children
@arthurchappell (45003)
Preston, England
January 28, 2020 11:47am CST
2020 – BBC – Spoiler alerts
A very moving drama based on real events, made specially to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day. (27th January).
After the liberation of Auschwitz a group of three hundred Polish children were flown to the British Lake District to an experimental rehabilitation camp close to Lake Windermere to help them recover from their unimaginable trauma and find new confidence in life. They had just four months to do it.
The camp initially frightens the children. The huts they use for dormitories, built initially to house workers at a nearby secret flying boat factory, look chillingly like the huts at Auschwitz. However, the children soon learn that they have been given a great deal of freedom and trust. One boy tries to escape, only to be spotted by one of the councillors, who instead of threatening any kind of violence simply gives the boy a cheery wave and lets him run off to explore the lakeside woods.
Later local village boys try bullying the refugees with Nazi salutes. A councillor sees it and walk over to them, handling the conflict with jaw-dropping calm. He shows the boys how to do the Hitler Salute correctly and while they maintain it, he casually describes how the children they are teasing saw men doing that salute while their families were casually slaughtered before their eyes. The bullies are clearly left humiliated and guilty for the experience.
The councillors teach the children English, allow them free expression art opportunities, offering no criticism of the art. At first the children draw guns, barbed wire, and images of death, but gradually start creating landscapes and work of more beauty.
One councillor organizes a football team, planning a friendly match against local players, but his use of whistles and aggressive team commands frightens the boys until they all learn to compromise and work together better.
There are still some sad moments. The Red Cross deliver news of whether the children’s family members survived – all of them have lost their families. One boy however, not hearing his older brother’s name mentioned maintains faith that his brother will come to the camp to find him. During the football match the brother does indeed turn up.
The film’s closing moment reduced me to tears. Close to leaving the camp, the smiling children run to the lakeshore for one last look at the beautiful landscape that inspired Wordsworth’s verse. One by one the children are faded out until only five or six remain, except they are not children any more but adults, the real men who experienced the camp recovery programme. They are smiling, happy, always in touch with one another. They have truly recaptured the life the Nazis stole from them and so many others.
An important film on a forgotten aspect of the concentration camp story, the rediscovery of hope, life and freedom.
Arthur Chappell
10 people like this
9 responses
@LadyDuck (467179)
• Switzerland
29 Jan 20
Surely a movie that would make me cry, but we need those movie to remember the horror that happened. To never forget what humans can do to other humans. Seventy five years after the survivors were freed by the Red Army, still someone is alive to remember.
1 person likes this
@arthurchappell (45003)
• Preston, England
31 Jan 20
@LadyDuck so important that heir stories are documented
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@arthurchappell (45003)
• Preston, England
2 Feb 20
@LadyDuck Some of them are the kind of people who would happily make it happen again
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (467179)
• Switzerland
1 Feb 20
@arthurchappell I cannot believe that so many people still do not believe that this was unfortunately real.
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@vandana7 (99882)
• India
28 Jan 20
Very sweet gesture for undertaking something like this. I have a few issues about historical movies. Unless they are exactly as per facts, they shouldn't be made, and definitely should not be fictionalized as invariably to make the movie move faster, somethings are focused on ignoring others making it higher concentration of bad, and one community gets painted rather bad. (In India we have a few about Hindu Muslims, and Indians vs. Britishers. So yeah..younger generation when they see such things are influenced easily because of the media, and harbor hatred. Some may become defensive because it is hard to believe such things existed at the time, and our community folks were in the wrong.
1 person likes this
@arthurchappell (45003)
• Preston, England
28 Jan 20
@vandana7 yes, such stories need very sensitive handling - this film manages it well
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@vandana7 (99882)
• India
28 Jan 20
@arthurchappell Many stories on holocaust are not true. Or partially so. It taints the rest of the true stories, which are in fact more gory. Such fiction work gives people the liberty to treat holocaust as fiction, and that is what I am not comfortable with. It happened, it was bad. We don't have to romanticize it or overdo it.
1 person likes this
@arthurchappell (45003)
• Preston, England
28 Jan 20
@vandana7 I think it can be covered in fiction but it has to be sensitive and not sensationalized
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@lovinangelsinstead21 (36850)
• Pamplona, Spain
1 Feb 20
My Sister had a life long friend and she and her family had escaped from the Ukraine for their own safety.
They never left England ever again.
I love that family so much even though we are not in touch now.
Their Dad was Russian her Mom from the Ukraine.
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@lovinangelsinstead21 (36850)
• Pamplona, Spain
1 Feb 20
@arthurchappell
Her Dad used to pick me up he was a huge guy and twirl me round in his arms and called me his Princess with huge hugs.
He was such a lovely man he called me Dushenka I know that is not how you spell it officially but that is how he said it.
Yes they were lucky so much so that they got used to being there in Wolverhampton at least their lives were saved.
1 person likes this
@arthurchappell (45003)
• Preston, England
2 Feb 20
@lovinangelsinstead21 Dushenka is a lovely name
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@arthurchappell (45003)
• Preston, England
1 Feb 20
@lovinangelsinstead21 Your sister's friend was lucky but sad that they never got to return home
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@Lushlala (4028)
• Gaborone, Botswana
13 Feb 20
It sounds like a real tearjerker. But these types of tv shows need to keep being made because the horrors committed against any section of society should never be forgotten, lest there's ever the risk of a repeat. Thanks for sharing :)
1 person likes this
@arthurchappell (45003)
• Preston, England
15 Feb 20
@Lushlala yes, that is why such shows are so invaluable
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@arthurchappell (45003)
• Preston, England
15 Feb 20
@st4nko one of many tragedies and atrocities all too easily forgotten
1 person likes this
@arthurchappell (45003)
• Preston, England
16 Feb 20
@st4nko sadly many politicians and historians here do forget all too easily
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@st4nko (171)
• Serbia
15 Feb 20
@arthurchappell no, my people never forgot that
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@RebeccasFarm (88351)
• Arvada, Colorado
28 Jan 20
This sounds an excellent production thanks for the review Arthur.
1 person likes this
@JohnRoberts (109846)
• Los Angeles, California
28 Jan 20
Sounds good. I see Iain Glen is the star.
1 person likes this
@arthurchappell (45003)
• Preston, England
28 Jan 20
@JohnRoberts he is very good in it too
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (170715)
• United States
28 Jan 20
An excellent review and a heart-wrenching story.
1 person likes this
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