Duchess asked to meet Holocaust survivors who found refuge in Lakes
THE DUCHESS OF CAMBRIDGE personally requested to meet survivors of the Holocaust who found refuge in the Lake District, after reading the story of the “Windermere Children”.
The Duchess hailed the “forwardthinking” treatment of survivors, who found solace in nature in Cumbria as teenage refugees, receiving art therapy, speaking to psychologists and being encouraged to try outdoor pursuits.
She asked to meet survivors after reading about the “Windermere Children”, 300 Jewish children who were flown to Britain in 1945 to rebuild their lives after the trauma of Nazi concentration camps. They had been liberated from the Theresienstadt camp, having survived years of hard labour, the death of their families, and the final marches in which so many lost their lives.
The Duchess later saw a film of the same name, with a source saying she had been struck by the testimonies of how early support after the extreme trauma of the Holocaust had helped young people begin healing and go on to lead successful lives.
During a visit to Cumbria, she took a boat trip on Windermere with Arek Hersh and Ike Alterman, two of those who went on to settle in Britain.
Mr Hersh, now 93, who lives in Leeds, lost 81 members of his family in the Holocaust. Only one of his sisters survived. Like Mr Alterman, who lives in Manchester and is also 93, he spent time in several concentration camps including Auschwitz.
The Duchess joined the two Holocaust survivors on Osprey, a 1902 steam launch, for a tour of the lake, watching as they pointed out the bay where they used to swim.
Mr Alterman, who went on to become a jeweller and have a long marriage, two children and two grandchildren, told her: “Each chalet had a bed, clean sheets. There were showers. I went swimming every third day, I went walking and climbing in the mountains. We had come from hell to paradise.”
The Duchess also met the children and grandchildren of other survivors on Windermere Jetty, hearing how they had met up once a year through the rest of their lives.