Sir Nicholas Winton "Saving the Children"
Discover the incredible true story of Sir Nicholas Winton.
Nicholas Winton was born on the 19th May 1909 in London into a Jewish family. He never denied his origin even though his family was excluded from the Jewish community. He studied at Hampstead and at Stowe and later became a real estate broker. He travelled extensively through Europe and lived in Germany for a while, where he worked in a bank. However, when the threat of the Nazis began to increase, Winton decided to move back to Britain.
Short video on deeds of sir Nicholas Winton
Rescue of children from the threatened area of Czechoslovakia
In 1938 Winton had decided to holiday in the Alps. However, after his friend phoned him and described the situation in Czechoslovakia and asked for help, Winton changed his plans. Although Winton had other responsibilities, he immediately went to Prague with only one goal – to help the endangered people. In Prague, Winton created an office and contacted international embassies to secure asylum for as many at risk Czechoslovak citizens as possible.
The only positive response came from Great Britain. All other countries had closed their borders. However, British ambassadors were given strict conditions concerning the transport of Jewish citizens to Great Britain. British borders would only allow children through, and 50 Pounds per child had to be paid. Winton’s office, situated in a typical Prague house, began to fill with parents who wanted to save their children from the Nazi danger. Archives with photos of all the registered children were made. These photographs were later printed in British newspapers for British families wanting to adopt Czechoslovak children. Time was against the Winton team and thus everything had to be done very quickly. When all the children were registered and British families had chosen the children for whom they would provide asylum, Nicholas Winton faced the final and most difficult task – to ensure all passengers visas and safe transport.
Winton´s team realised the situation was so desperate, they decided to falsify the visas, thus increasing the danger. In spite of all this, eight trains successfully managed to get to Great Britain via Germany and France where the children came to safety and were given a new home. The final, ninth train with 250 children, did not reach Britain, because of the breakout of the war on the 1st September 1939. Despite the unsuccessful dispatch of the last train, Nicholas Winton saved 669 Czechoslovak children.
Life after the war
Winton then returned to his home country, where he devoted himself to clerical work. He kept his noble deed a secret for many decades. Had it not been for his wife Greta, who accidentally found the scrapbook with photos of the rescued children in the attic of their house, we would probably have never found out about the unbelievable things Nicholas Winton managed to achieve.
Honours
In 1998, president Václav Havel invited Winton for a private visit to Prague and awarded him with the order of T.G. Masaryk. In his home country, Winton was awarded the OBE. Thus his full name now goes by the title Sir Nicholas Winton.
Sir Nicholas Winton is now almost 104 years of age and he continues with his conviction that what he did for the Czechoslovak children was commonplace.
