Category: Wales
Date: 24.01.2006
Printable version
To coincide with this year's Holocaust Memorial Day, 91Èȱ¬ 2W will be broadcasting a special documentary looking at the lives of those who managed to flee from Nazi Germany and escape persecution.
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By the winter of 1938, Hitler's intention to victimise Europe's Jews was clear.
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Synagogues were burned, shops and homes were destroyed and as communities were torn apart the world awoke to the nightmare of being a Jew in Nazi Germany.
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Britain was shaken into action and Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain agreed to the rescue of as many Jews as possible.
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Saving the children became the top priority and between December 1938 and the eve of war 10,000 children travelled to the UK in an operation known as the Kindertransport.
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Some were taken in by British families, some put up in camps and others in hostels.
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But for 200 children, their sanctuary was a castle in north Wales - given to the Government as a place of refuge.
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Escaping persecution they found protection and enchantment in a place once known as 'the showplace of Wales'.
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Holocaust Day: A Haven in Wales (Thursday 26 January) reunites one of the organisers of the Kindertransport with three of those he helped save.
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During their emotional meeting, viewers will hear memories of their past.
Only now do they choose to return to their childhood haunt - travelling to a place they haven't seen for more than 60 years.
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Osias Findling, one of those who lived at the castle, says: "This place created a bond which lasted for a lifetime."
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Emotionally through the tears, he adds: "It's very emotional to see this place again after 62 years and remember the happy days we had. And to think that the life we then had was so different to the future we had imagined then."
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Now derelict, Gwrych Castle has been left to crumble and decay. But seeing it as a ruin, Osi and his friends still have the fondest of memories.
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Viewers will hear how grateful they are to Wales and its people for providing shelter and friendship during difficult times.
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"The Welsh people were very hospitable and very kind to us - which we needed badly as children," he says.
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"Having come from the terrible atmosphere in Germany to a free country and to experience the friendliness of the Welsh people - this place gave us a new life and for the first time we really felt what it meant to be free.
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"We will be eternally grateful to the Welsh people for that."
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Holocaust Day: A Haven in Wales, 91Èȱ¬ 2W, Thursday 26 January 2006, 9.45pm
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AF2
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