FROM feedback we have received, we know that many of your readers will have watched the BBC Two drama film The Windermere Children, which was followed by the BBC Four documentary The

Windermere Children: In Their Own Words.

The Lake District Holocaust Project were researchers and advisors on the drama and documentary, and we have been deeply moved by the reaction to the story both nationally and locally.

We have been working on the story of the child Holocaust survivors, and their arrival and stay in the Lake District in 1945, for 15 years and the film producers first approached us three years ago. They then visited the Lake District to hear about the story. We also took them to visit some of the locations linked to the story including the former site of Calgarth Estate, the Shorts factory at White Cross Bay, the swimming area at Low Miller Ground, Queen Adelaide Hill, and many other sites.

We have collected a huge archive of images and stories from the children themselves and also from the local community that welcomed them.

Along with our dear friend Allan King, the acknowledged expert on all things about the White Cross Bay Shorts factory, we recall fondly a gathering at the Marchesi Centre in Windermere more than ten years ago when so many former factory workers and families shared their stories with us and enjoyed their time looking at the exhibition we had prepared for them.

None of us at that time could have imagined just what a key part Windermere and the Calgarth Estate would play in the national Holocaust Memorial Day commemorations of two nations that were involved in so much bitter conflict for so many years of the 20th century. And now here we are, with so few eye witnesses remaining to tell us the stories of those tumultuous times, and their numbers growing fewer with every passing year. It has made us pause and think how fortunate we have been to be able to share precious moments with so many of that generation.

Trevor Avery

Lake District Holocaust Project, Windermere