PBS is showing child Holocaust survivors drama ‘The Windermere Children’
The Windermere Children will premiere in the US next month.
The BBC’s 90-minute TV movie is the first dramatisation of a remarkable true story of hope after horror, revealing how Britain and a remarkable group of adults transformed the lives of 300 child survivors of the concentration camps.
The cast includes Romola Garai (The Hour), Tim McInnerny (Blackadder), Thomas Kretschmann (The Pianist), and Iain Glen (Downton Abbey).
The Windermere Children will air in the US on PBS Masterpiece at 10pm on Sunday 5th April.
It directly follows the PBS premiere of new World War II drama World on Fire.
The film was originally shown in the UK earlier this year, on the 75th International Holocaust Memorial Day in January.
Watch the trailer:
The official synopsis reads: “August, 1945. A coachload of children arrive at the Calgarth Estate by Lake Windermere, England. They are child survivors of the Nazi Holocaust that has devastated Europe’s Jewish population.
“Carrying only the clothes they wear and a few meagre possessions, they bear the emotional and physical scars of all they have suffered.
“Charged with looking after the children is child psychologist Oscar Friedmann (Kretschmann). Along with his team of counsellors, including art therapist Marie Paneth (Garai), philanthropist Leonard Montefiore (McInnerny) and sports coach Jock Lawrence (Glen), they have four months to help the children reclaim their lives.
“By the lake, the children learn English, play football, ride bikes, express their trauma through painting – and begin to heal. Some locals taunt them, but they are embraced by others. Haunted by nightmares, they yearn for news of their loved ones. When the Red Cross arrives with letters about the fates of their families, none of them receive good news. But in the absence of relatives, the children find family in each other.
“The Windermere Children is the stark, moving and ultimately redemptive story of the bonds the children make with one another, and of how the friendships forged at Windermere sustain them as they rebuild their lives in the UK.”
Executive producer Leanne Klein previously commented: “Seventy five years after the Holocaust ended it’s a story that feels as important and relevant as ever.”
The Windermere Children: In Their Own Words, a powerful companion documentary, will also be available to stream with PBS Passport on all PBS digital platforms from 3rd April.
Narrated by actor Iain Glen, the documentary features interviews from the survivors themselves.
The Windermere Children is available to watch on Amazon Prime.