Windermere & The Boys

Jewish TALK JSCN

There is a kindly gentleman who sits not far away from me in Synagogue. He’s called Sam. He always asks about me and my wife, and I always make sure to wish him Shabbat Shalom. He rarely speaks about himself but I know, from other people, that Sam has survived three or maybe four concentration camps. And people were also keen to tell me “Hey you know he’s one of the ‘Windermere Boys’, don’t you?” “The Boys”, was a group of 300 boys and girls who ended up in Prague and had been airlifted out as refugees at the end of the war. They were taken to Windermere to recover, and from there they would go on to build new lives. But recently I found out how the history of that time and the physical evidence of their existence had almost been eradicated for ever. Trevor Avery had an interest in the war time history of Windermere, but initially for a completely different reason, until the chance encounter piqued his interest. Now for over 10 years he has made it his mission to uncover that history and tell the story of The Windermere Boys to the world.