The mental health lessons we can learn from Windermere - The Jewish Chronicle

All week long I’ve been talking to friends about the BBC’s extraordinary drama The Windermere Children, how good it was and how we cried watching it.

It told the story of the 300 Jewish children liberated from concentration camps who were airlifted to the UK thanks to the Central British Fund (now World Jewish Relief) , and its founder Leonard Montefiore. The CBF raised the equivalent of £81 million from the Jewish community to help rehabilitate them.

The transformation in these desperately traumatised children in just a few months seemed magical. The drama’s ending, where the real life children - now men in their nineties - appeared beside their fictional counterparts and told of lives well-lived, was a testament to everyone who made their stay in Windermere possible. The combination of kindness and care from child psychologists, teachers and a rabbi from Gateshead, proper food and beds, and the glorious countryside helped the children cope with the devastation of their past. They formed their own family, as they learned that for the most part their families were gone forever.

If I had one question at the end of the programme it was how complete was their recovery? Were they dogged by mental health problems all their lives? Were the happy endings we witnessed really as good as they seemed?

A documentary on BBC 4 told me more about the background of the programme. It emphasised the freedom the children were given, the lack of rules, the way they could explore and enjoy the countryside. “It was paradise,” said one of them, wiping away tears.

Looking at the JC from 1945 also helped me understand the approach. Oscar Friedman, the psychologist in charge told our correspondent about a boy who would not mix with the other children, or eat, who was subject to bouts of "hysteria" and who asked him: "Why have I been spared? I am nearly the youngest of my family and I am nobody. I have had enough of life." Mr Friedman told him that he was not a child but a member of the family for whom he could do something. "After a few days he began to mix freely with the others and is now well on the way to normality."

Moreover, after the children left Windermere they were supported by the CBF, but encouraged to work towards independence as young adults.. Financial support was available to help them set up businesses, train in professions and in some cases go to university, but there were many questions that had to be answered before the money was forthcoming, and the emphasis was very much on enabling them to earn a living. In other words, they were helped to grow up and survive in a world that would not always be kind and supportive to them.

This weekend is Mental Health Awareness Shabbat, and it feels like a well-timed opportunity to stop and consider how we as a community have been affected by the Shoah in terms of our mental health. The trauma suffered by children of survivors is beginning to be talked about more widely , but you rarely hear about the collective legacy of the Shoah, on all Jews, even those of us whose immediate family were thankfully safe and well in Britain.

We all know that the real survivors are the ones who should be the focus of our concerns. But perhaps we don’t take time to consider the anxiety, grief and pain felt by all of us, often suppressed or expressed in indirect ways like highly protective parenting, extreme fear of antisemitism, eating disorders or depression.

This year has been a particularly difficult one as antisemitism became an issue in a British election for the first time in my lifetime. Mental Health Awareness Shabbat might be a time for us to consider the toll that has taken on our mental health, and how we can support eachother better in these difficult times.

Suppressed emotion is often played out in the next generation. Are our young people particularly prone to mental health issues, such as anxiety and eating disorders? How much of that is to do with the particular legacy of the Shoah? And what can modern parents do to help their children?

I think we can learn a great deal from the Windermere project. We must believe in young people’s resilience and encourage their independence, allowing them to decide on their future, their aspirations and how they are to earn their own living. We must teach them how to make real friendships and care for others and also encourage them to love nature and exercise. Like Mr Friedman we must tell them that they have an important role to play in the life of the family and the wider community, that their contribution is valuable and necessary. They are not passive objects of our love, they are people in their own right. In these ways we can lay the foundations for good mental health for life.

The Windermere Children and The Windermere Children in Their Own Words are available on BBC iplayer