Nicholas Winton and the Story of One Man

In 1938 Nicholas Winton was a 30-year-old clerk at the London stock exchange. At the invitation of his friend, working at the British Embassy, he visited Prague. When he arrived he found that his friend and a British team were working in newly erected refugee camps and they needed his help.

In October of the same year, following the Munich Agreement between Germany and the Western European powers, Nazi Germany annexed a large part of western Czechoslovakia. Winton knew that German occupation of the rest of the country would soon follow and he decided to take his own action to protect the Jewish children from the Nazis. Anxious parents understood the danger their children were in as well as the necessity to send them as soon as possible to Britain and so they placed the future of their children into his hands.

In 1939 Nicholas Winton, organised the trains which took 669 Czech Jewish children through Nazi Germany to safety in Britain. But he had to find funds to cover all the costs he had incurred for the repatriation and for finding foster homes for these children. He put many adverts in British newspapers, churches and synagogues in order to find new parents for them.

He kept his secret very well and many of the children did not know for a long time the name of their saviour. It was only after 49 years, in 1988, when his wife found a complete list of children's names and photos that the whole story came to light. Today the notebooks and other papers are held at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, in Israel.

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Winton has received many acknowledgements for his humanitarian deeds. He was sent a letter of thanks by the late Ezer Weizman, a former president of the State of Israel. He was made an Honorary Citizen of Prague. Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, awarded him the MBE (Member of the British Empire), Václav Havel awarded him the Order of T.G. Masaryk at Hradcany Castle and he also received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for his services to humanity. Two films by Slovak filmmaker Matej Mináč: All My Loved Ones and Nicholas Winton: The Power of Good, were based on his story.

The rescued children, many now grandparents, still refer to themselves as „Winton's children“ and Sir Nicholas Winton is often called „Britain´s Schin­dler“. But unlike Schindler and Wallenberg he is still alive at 99 and remains a man who can truly demonstrate „The Power of Good “.

By Beata Pašková
Photo: A. Ban, P. Haas

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