Holocaust project set for Windermere library expansion

The youngsters were photographed in Prague, just prior to being flown to the UK

A project commemorating the months spent in the Lake District by 300 young Holocaust survivors is to expand.

An exhibition of photographs and documents telling their story has long been housed in Windermere's library.

The building will also now house a larger collection called the Lake District Paradise Project.

It will trace the history of the town and surrounding area, including the Sunderland "flying boat" factory at White Cross Bay.

The 300 children, who became known as the Windermere Boys - although there were also girls - had been liberated from concentration camps, including Auschwitz.

They were brought to the Lake District to recuperate for a few months and stayed for a time in the now-vacant accommodation huts for the workforce at the seaplane factory.

At the time, they referred to the area as "paradise", which inspired the name of the project.

The council-run library will also operate from the building

The expansion was announced after Cumbria County Council agreed to a 99-year lease of the library building to the project.

Project director Trevor Avery said: "The timing of this is perfect as it comes just as we're about to enter the 75th anniversary of when the child survivors arrived in the Lake District from the camps.

"There can be no better way to celebrate the children's survival than to commemorate it through a hugely important library and education initiative."