'The Windermere Children' - Movie Review

After World War II, the UK took in more than 750 child survivors of the Holocaust. Of those, 300 went to Calgarth Estate near Lake Windermere in England. This is a fictionalized story of what happened to them - book-ended by stories from the real survivors. The children were, unsurprisingly, horribly traumatized by their experiences. They had compassionate staff to tend to them, but weren't entirely welcomed by the people in the area. And they only had four months to set these kids on their feet in a new country, with occasional emotional setbacks like the Red Cross showing up with news yes, the entire rest of your family is actually dead.

The movie takes a fairly low-key approach to a subject that could easily have been over-dramatized - and by doing so probably made it more effective. We see and feel their pain - but also the growth, the hope, and the ultimate positive effects.