The end of the road is paradise.
Having started in Terezin and walking to Prague, a few of the original group had an itch to scratch and wanted complete the mission. In the intervening year and a half, Regenesis had spent a good deal of time with the Lake District Holocaust Project learning about the Boys, the Calgarth Estate where they were rehabilitated, and hearing and watching recorded first hand witness accounts of their arrival and rehabilitation.
We had become focussed on two facts:
- Sir Ben, one of the Boys, had planted an acorn found at Auschwitz at exactly the spot that Calgarth once stood, now the Lakes School
- The Boys instinctively called their temporary home Paradise. I’m unsure if that refers in relativity to where they had come from or the beauty of the Lakes that we take for granted. In Yiddish the reference to paradise actually translates to a broader place of harmony The Garden of Eden
So, on discovering that the Boys had landed at the RAF airfield in Carlisle, there was only one route to choose to get to Calgarth – along the River Eden. Even though this was a tricky waterside route we liked the symbolism of walking through the garden of Eden to the Boys accommodation.
On arrival at Calgarth, we continued the Regenesis tradition of laying stones at Sir Ben’s Tree which was starting to flourish. From a previous visit, this tree had also taken on another name – The Tree of Life, quoting Sir Ben himself who stated that this was the place the Boys came back to life.
Mission accomplished – Regenesis had covered every step from Terezin to the Windermere.
