Holocaust survivors inspire children's Paradise art project (From The Westmorland Gazette)
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Holocaust survivors inspire children's Paradise art project
5:20pm Thursday 5th July 2012 in News
By Adrian Mullen, Arts correspondent
Arek Hersch, one of the 'boys' who survived the Holocaust and was brought to Windermere in 1945
ARTWORK created by more than 400 children is helping provide a poignant reminder of a dark period in history.
The Paradise Project is a remarkable exhibition of children's art works commissioned by the Lake District Holocaust Project.
Inspired by the ‘paradise’ description given to the Lake District by the 300 Jewish child Holocaust survivors who were brought to Windermere in 1945, the works will be shown at the home of the Lake District Holocaust Project at Windermere Library between July 14 and September 8, and selections of the children's paintings will also be seen in libraries across South Lakeland throughout the summer.
Trevor Avery, director of education charity Another Space and project organiser, said that a children's art project was a fitting tribute to the innate creativity of childhood, and provided a poignant moment to reflect on what was lost when a child was caught up in the “fog of war, hatred and intolerance.”
He explained that when you work with children today you realise that they are the same as those survivors who came to the Lake District in 1945.
He added: “They have the same hopes and dreams. We must all work to prevent this and future generations of children suffering from the kinds of cruelties that had been inflicted on the child survivors of 1945. It is difficult, of course it is, but we must keep trying.”
The initiative not only celebrates childhood but also the centenary of the founding of a remarkable orphanage in Poland.
Continued Trevor: “It is 100 years ago since the establishment of the the Krochmalna Street orphanage in Warsaw where doctor, writer and educator Janusz Korczak developed further his child centred ideas that continue to have a huge impact today.”
“Children mean so much to the survivors, and dedicating this unique celebration of childhood to our Windermere Holocaust survivors, and to Janusz Korczak is so appropriate."
Janusz himself was murdered in 1942, along with the children from his orphanage. He believed that children had rights and his proposals were eventually incorporated into the United Nations 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child.
