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As a Young Man, He Saved 669 Children from the Nazis

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As a Young Man, He Saved 669 Children from the Nazis As a young man, he saved 669 children from the Nazis. The world has lost one of its most inspiring men with the death of 106-year-old Sir Nicholas Winton. At the outbreak of World War Two, his efforts saved 669 children — most of them Jewish — from the Nazis. But Sir Nick is just as famous for what he did after the war; or, rather, what he didn’t do. He was born in England in 1909 to two recently emigrated German Jews. His family changed their last name from Wertheim to Winton, and converted from Judaism to Christianity. Nicholas Winton became a champion fencer, worked as a stockbroker, and was active in left- wing politics. While preparing to go on a ski vacation with a friend at the end of 1938, the two decided instead to go to Prague, which was the capital of Czechoslovakia, and is now the capi- tal of the Czech Republic. Winton and his friend found Prague in chaos, especially among the city’s large Jewish population. At the time, Nazi Germany was slowly moving across Czecho- slovakia, and there were no efforts to save Jewish children. So Winton took on the job himself. Working out of his hotel in Prague, he took down the names of thousands of children, and found people who could help smuggle them onto trains out of Czechoslovakia. Winton then went back to London and lobbied Europe’s governments to find places for all of them. Only England and Sweden agreed to take them in. During 1939, his contacts in Prague were able to get eight trainloads of children — a total of 669 in all — to foster families in London. A ninth train never left Prague; the 250 children on board were never heard from again. For years, Nicholas Winton just lived his life. Then the media found him. Nicholas Winton served in World War Two — first as a conscientious objector, then as a pilot for the Royal Air Force. After the war, he worked with refugee groups, and held a job with the International Bank ensuring that European nations did not use recovery money for weapons. Winton raised his own children with his wife Greta, and established a top team fencing com- petition in Great Britain with his brother. But he kept quiet about what he had done during the war, never seeking publicity or fame. In 1998, Winton’s wife Greta found his notebook from Prague, containing the names of all the children he saved in 1939. A British news program invited 80 of them — now grown — to a taping of a show called “That’s Life,” focusing on Winton’s efforts during the war. During the show, he was shocked to find himself surrounded by “Winton’s Children,” all applauding him. Since then, Winton’s story has been told in books, films, and TV shows all over the world, in- cluding “60 Minutes.” In 2002, he received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. The Czech Republic awarded him its highest honor, the Order of the White Lion, and erected a statue dedicated to him in Prague’s Central Station. Through it all, however, Winton was deeply humble about what he did in 1938 and 1939. He claimed that anyone would have done the same thing, and said he only wished he had been able to save more children. .
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