It's the documentary companion piece to the film "The Windermere Children". It's good to watch this documentary after watching the film. It shows the real story and it's nice to see the truth of the film. It's great to see Bela again although the five others are not shown. I do wish to see the compound in present day.
3 Reviews
A must-see short documentary
catnapbc26 August 2023
Warning: Spoilers
I saw this after watching the movie that was based on this real event. Both films came as a 'set' from our public library. The movie did not impress me all that much, but did cover more than what the far-too-short documentary 'In their own words' showed. But the impact of personal narratives of these survivors was much more powerful and telling than the movie, which came across as maudlin and was overwhelmed by a very irritating soundtrack. The non-British actors in the film were quite solid, unlike the British ones trying (and failing) to convince with lousy 'accents'. I certainly hope that the reception and treatment the refugee children received in the village was NOT as it was portrayed in the movie. Surely they were aware of the coming of these unfortunate souls. A very important story that most of us have not heard of before now. And for those who were interviewed for the documentary, it seems they really did thrive after all, and despite their past traumas. Very inspiring.
Saving the children and a grand experiment in nature vs nurture.
TxMike7 June 2020
This program is broadcast on PBS.
Humans over the years have done lots of experimenting with non-human animals but experimenting with humans is generally forbidden. However at times the experiments just happen for unrelated reasons, giving us insights otherwise unavailable.
That is how I prefer to view this program, 300 orphan Jewish children, Holocaust survivors, are placed at an English estate near Lake Windermere, former site of a seaplane factory, where they grow back to normalcy in circumstances way foreign to their homeland. The results are very interesting and the presentation is well made. Anna Freud published a paper on 'An Experiment in Group Upbringing' in studying the group of six youngest children. What allows this documentary to rise above ordinary is seeing and hearing from several of the original 300 children, now in their late 70s to early 90s.
"The Windermere Children: In Their Own Words" tells the story of the pioneering project to rehabilitate child survivors of the Holocaust on the shores of Lake Windermere. In the year that marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II and the Holocaust, this powerful documentary reveals a little-known story of 300 young orphaned Jewish refugees who began new lives in England's Lake District in the summer of 1945."
Humans over the years have done lots of experimenting with non-human animals but experimenting with humans is generally forbidden. However at times the experiments just happen for unrelated reasons, giving us insights otherwise unavailable.
That is how I prefer to view this program, 300 orphan Jewish children, Holocaust survivors, are placed at an English estate near Lake Windermere, former site of a seaplane factory, where they grow back to normalcy in circumstances way foreign to their homeland. The results are very interesting and the presentation is well made. Anna Freud published a paper on 'An Experiment in Group Upbringing' in studying the group of six youngest children. What allows this documentary to rise above ordinary is seeing and hearing from several of the original 300 children, now in their late 70s to early 90s.
"The Windermere Children: In Their Own Words" tells the story of the pioneering project to rehabilitate child survivors of the Holocaust on the shores of Lake Windermere. In the year that marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II and the Holocaust, this powerful documentary reveals a little-known story of 300 young orphaned Jewish refugees who began new lives in England's Lake District in the summer of 1945."
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