The Jewish children who came to the Lake District had been liberated in May 1945 at, or close to, Theresienstadt ghetto and concentration camp near Prague. They had been in the Nazi camp system across Occupied Europe for a number of years. Having been separated from their families and moved numerous times to different ghettos, camps and factories, they each had a different story to tell of a different journey.

In June 1945 the Home Office gave permission for a thousand orphans aged from eight to sixteen to be brought to the UK for recuperation, and ultimate re-emigration overseas. The Home Office were made aware that it was unlikely that any documents would be available giving proof of age, and the children rescued from concentration camps would most probably have no identification papers of any kind.

With this fact established, three hundred children were moved from Theresienstadt to Prague and, on 13 August 1945, ten Stirling aircraft of 196 Squadron set off for Prague from the UK to collect the children and other passengers, in order to transport them to the Lake District.