Route to Paradise

Route to Paradise is a 2020 British short documentary film written, produced and directed by Thomas Gardner.[1] The film follows a team of archaeologists from Staffordshire University as they attempt to uncover the former Calgarth Estate, the site where 300 Jewish children were re-located to after being liberated from Nazi Germany's concentration camps during the Holocaust.[2]

Route to Paradise
Directed byThomas Gardner
Written byThomas Gardner
Produced byTrevor Avery
Thomas Gardner
CinematographyThomas Gardner
Dylan Kirby-Smith
Music byCon Daniels
Production
companies
LDHP
Another Space
Release date
May 17, 2020
Running time
33 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguagesEnglish
German

Development

During Christmas 2018, artist and curator Trevor Avery approached filmmaker Thomas Gardner to make a film about the excavation and surveying of the former Calgarth Estate.[3][4] An appeal was later released into the press for stories and photographs pertaining to the survivors from local residents who had been around during their time in the Lake District.[5] The planned dig had been given the go ahead after being funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.[6][7]

Production

Principal photography began early February 2019 in Oświęcim, Poland at Auschwitz concentration camp.[8] Production was then moved back to the UK, where the crew spent two weeks filming on the grounds at The Lakes School with the archaeologists when the excavation began on July 15, 2019,[9] then travelled to Nottingham to interview Norman Shepherd, a flight engineer with RAF Squadron 196. He was on the flight that brought the Windermere Children to England and is the last surviving member of the crew for that flight. The film was shot over a period of 5 months, featuring interviews with Arek Hersh and Sam Gontarz, two of the 300 children who had been liberated from concentration camps and re-settled in England. The main bulk of the footage came from survivor testimonies intertwined with footage from the excavation/survey of the Calgarth Estate, headed by forensic archaeologist Caroline Sturdy Colls[10][11] who is most famous for her forensic examination of the Treblinka extermination camp.[12]

It was released on YouTube in 2020.[13]

References
  1. Taylor, Dan (June 21, 2019). "Documentary to capture stories of Lake District links to Holocaust survivors". North West Evening Mail.
  2. Thomas, Andrew. "Story of Holocaust link to area to be retold" The Westmorland Gazette. 29 June 2019
  3. Zeller, Mike. "Documentary on Calgarth Estate announced" BBC Radio Cumbria. 21 June 2019
  4. Smith, Rosemary. "Holocaust documentary planned for The Windermere Boys" Lake District Holocaust Project. 5 February 2019
  5. "Filmmaker's appeal on documentary about Calgarth Estate". The Westmorland Gazette. June 30, 2019.
  6. "Holocaust project receives £48,000 for WW2 site dig". ITV News. January 11, 2019.
  7. Garnett, Rachel (January 27, 2019). "Heritage Lottery Fund gives £48,000 to Holocaust archaeology dig". The Westmorland Gazette.
  8. Smith, Rosemary. "Filming begins for Holocaust documentary". Lake District Holocaust Project. February 17, 2019.
  9. "Planned excavation of Calgarth Estate gets underway". Staffordshire University. 20 July 2019
  10. "Staffordshire archaeologists to help unearth story of Holocaust survivors". Staffordshire University. 15 January 2019
  11. JC Reporter. "Survey to take place at Second World War site". The Jewish Chronicle. 18 January 2019
  12. Lebovic, Matt (April 7, 2015). "British Forensics Expert shapes the future of Holocaust research". Times of Israel.
  13. Zhuravlyova, Sonia (May 26, 2020). "Documentary on Lake District child Holocaust survivors released". The Jewish Chronicle.
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