THE war was all but over when a train pulled into Oxenholme Station carrying 300 Czechoslovakian orphans.

Numbed by six years of bitter conflict and bloodshed, Westmorland's war weary quietly took in the children without asking too many questions.

They did not know then the full horror of what these youngsters had endured.

The Westmorland Gazette had to explain they were "apparently Jewish" and "claimed" their parents had died in concentration camps.

Only later, when the impact of man's ultimate inhumanity was revealed, did the Holocaust hit home.

Six million Jews - two thirds of Europe's population - were slaughtered at Auschwitz and other Nazi death camps.

Tomorrow, January 27, is the first Holocaust Memorial Day, an occasion intended to ensure the hideous cruelty and wanton disregard for life are never forgotten.

It is not just about the Second World War, but aims to remember all victims of genocide, prejudice and exploitation.

South Lakeland District Council is using the day as a focus to gather information about individuals or groups who helped those affected by atrocities.

Inevitably, attention turns to the helpless waifs who had already been to hell and back when the train steamed into Oxenholme Station.

There had been other rail journeys, with terrible destinations.

They had been on the cattle trucks which took their mothers and fathers to their gas chamber deaths.

Historian and South Lakeland district councillor Roger Bingham explains the children witnessed the executions of their parents and some had been so starved they had been forced to eat grass and roots.

"There had been nauseating newsreels of the opening of Belsen, but the Holocaust was unknown when the Czechoslovakian children arrived in the spring of 1945," he said.

"They came at a time of acute shortages and appalling austerity, yet were taken in and cared for, staying for six to eight months."

Brought to Britain by the Red Cross and cared for by Quakers and WVS ladies, the group was housed in a Windermere hostel.

"When they were waiting for their first meal they seized on little triangles of bread because they thought it was the entire meal," said Roger.

"They were amazed to discover it was to accompany Heinz tomato soup, a great delicacy in those times of rationing, and there were to be two more courses."

Roger's anecdotes came from a chance meeting with an elderly woman, who had helped care for the tragic refugees.

It was a unique insight.

The historian who has been gathering war information for decades knew little about the young Jewish visitors.

Like South Lakeland District Council, he is anxious to know more about Westmorland's sanctuary for the forgotten children and what happended to them after they left Windermere.

County Medical Officer of Health Dr Gow reported that when taken to Stramongate Dental Clinic, they were terrified of gas.

One little boy asked where the gas chamber was.

According to Roger, the children were taken to the Royalty Cinema, in Bowness, to see Oscar Wilde's A Picture of Dorian Grey.

"The fantasy set in Victorian times was about as far removed as possible from the hellish realities of their own lives," he added.

Tomorrow is the 56th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Polish death camp which saw the extermination of up to four million at the hands of the Nazis.

These days, more than 700,000 visitors a year pass under the iron gates that bear the motto "Arbeit macht frei" (work makes one free).

No one leaves the site, kept as a testimony to the millions who perished, unaffected.

Tomorrow Britain will remember.

l Anyone who can help with Holocaust memories from Westmorland should contact John Booth at South Lakeland District Council on 01539-733333 extension 403.