Every year on May 19, we, the
comrades of Unit 1012, will wish Sir Nicholas Winton a happy birthday. We will
honor and respect him as a hero for the rescue of 669 Jewish children from
Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. Just like we honor the Righteous among the
Nations, we honor him and will always remember him. We will post the
information about him from Wikipedia and other links.
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Sir Nicholas Winton - British humanitarian
(b. 1909) who organized the rescue of about 669 mostly Jewish Czech children
visiting Prague in October 2007.
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Born
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Nicholas
George Wertheim
19 May 1909 (age 105) Hampstead, London, England |
Residence
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London,
England
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Occupation
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Humanitarian
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Spouse(s)
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Grete
Gjelstrup (1919-1999)
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Children
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Nick,
Barbara, Robin (deceased)
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Awards
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Sir Nicholas George Winton, MBE (born Nicholas
Wertheim, 19 May 1909) is a British humanitarian who organized the rescue
of 669, mostly Jewish, children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of
the Second World War, in an operation later known as the Czech Kindertransport.
Winton found homes for the children and arranged for their safe passage to
Britain. The British press has dubbed him the "British Schindler". On 28 October 2014 he was awarded
the highest honour of the Czech Republic, the Order of the White Lion, by Czech
President Miloš Zeman.
Early life
Nicholas Winton was born on 19 May
1909 in Hampstead, London, a son of German
Jewish parents who had moved to London two years earlier. The family name
was Wertheim, but they changed it to Winton in an effort at
integration. They also converted to Christianity, and Winton was baptised.
In 1923, Winton entered Stowe
School, which had just opened. He left without graduating, attending night
school while volunteering at the Midland
Bank. He then went to Hamburg, where he worked at Behrens Bank, followed by
Wasserman Bank in Berlin.
In 1931, he moved to France and worked for the Banque Nationale de Crédit in Paris. He also earned
a banking qualification in France. Returning to London, he became a broker at
the London Stock Exchange. Though a stockbroker,
Winton was also "an ardent socialist who became close to Labour Party party luminaries Aneurin
Bevan, Jennie Lee and Tom Driberg."
Through another socialist friend, Martin Blake, Winton became part of a
leftwing circle opposed to appeasement and concerned about the dangers posed by the
Nazis.
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| Nicholas Winton |
Humanitarian
work
See also: Kindertransport
Shortly
before Christmas 1938, Winton was planning to
travel to Switzerland for a skiing holiday. He
decided instead to visit Prague and help Martin
Blake, who was in Prague as an associate of the British
Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia, and had called Winton to ask him to
assist in Jewish welfare work. Winton single-handedly established an
organisation to aid children from Jewish families at risk from the Nazis.
He set up his office at a dining room table in his hotel in Wenceslas Square. In November 1938,
following the Kristallnacht in Nazi-ruled
Germany, the House
of Commons approved a measure to allow the entry into Britain of
refugees younger than 17, provided they had a place to stay and a warranty of
£50 was deposited for their eventual return to their own country.
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Nicholas
Winton (Born: 19 May 1909) on his 105th birthday on 19 May 2014
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The Netherlands
An important obstacle was getting
official permission to cross into the Netherlands,
as the children were destined to embark on the ferry at Hoek
van Holland. After the Kristallnacht in November 1938, the Dutch
government officially closed its borders to any Jewish refugees. The border
guards, marechaussee, searched for them and returned any found to
Germany, despite the horrors of Kristallnacht being well known: from the
border, the synagogue in Aachen could be seen burning just 3 miles away.
Winton succeeded, thanks to the guarantees
he had obtained from Britain. After the first train, crossing the Netherlands
went smoothly. A Dutch woman, Geertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer saved
another 1000 Jewish children, mostly from Vienna and Berlin
via the Hook, though it is not known whether she and Winton ever met. In 2012,
a statue was erected on the quay at the Hook to commemorate all who had saved
Jewish children.
Winton found homes in Britain for 669
children, many of whose parents would perish in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Winton's mother worked with him to place the
children in homes and later hostels.
Throughout the summer, Winton placed advertisements seeking families to accept
them. The last group of 250, scheduled to leave Prague on 1 September 1939, did
not reach safety. Hitler had invaded Poland and the Second World War had begun.
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The original letter
Winton sent to President Roosevelt asking for American support to evacuate
children from Czechoslovakia (NARA)
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World War
II
Winton sought registration as a
conscientious objector and served with the Red Cross, but in 1940 he rescinded his
objection to join the Royal Air Force, Administrative and Special Duties
Branch. He was an airman, rising to sergeant by the time he was commissioned on
22 June 1944 as an acting pilot officer on probation. On 17 August 1944 he was
promoted to pilot officer on probation. He was promoted to the rank of war
substantive flying officer on 17 February 1945. He relinquished his commission
on 19 May 1954, retaining the honorary rank of flight lieutenant.
Post-war
After the war, he worked for the
International Refugee Organisation and then the International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development in Paris, where met and married Grete Gjelstrup,
from Denmark. He and Grete settled in Maidenhead, England, where they brought
up their three children and he stood, unsuccessfully, for the town council in
1954. Winton found work in the finance departments of various companies.
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Sir Nicholas Winton British humanitarian (b.
1909) who organized the rescue of about 669 mostly Jewish Czech children
visiting Prague in October 2007 - meeting with Czech students.
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That's Life
Winton kept quiet about his
humanitarian exploits for many years, until his wife Grete found a detailed
scrapbook in their attic in 1988. It contained lists of the children, including
their parents' names, and the names and addresses of the families that took
them in. By sending letters to these addresses, 80 of "Winton's
children" were found in Britain. The world found out about his work in
1988 during an episode of the BBC television programme That's
Life! when he was invited as a member of the audience. At one point
Winton's scrapbook was shown, and his achievements were explained. The host of
the programme, Esther Rantzen, asked whether any in the audience
owed their lives to Winton, and, if so, to stand – more than two dozen people
surrounding Winton rose and applauded.
Notable people saved
Winton has acknowledged the vital
roles of Beatrice Wellington, Doreen Warriner, Trevor Chadwick and others in
Prague. Winton was only in Prague for about three weeks before the Nazis
invaded. He never set foot on Prague Station. As he wrote, "Chadwick did
the more difficult and dangerous work after the Nazis invaded ... he
deserves all praise". The full story is told in The Rescue of the
Prague Refugees 1938–39, with which Winton said he was
"delighted".
100th birthday
To celebrate his 100th birthday, he
flew over the White Waltham Airfield in a microlight piloted by Judy Leden, the
daughter of one of the boys he saved. His birthday was also marked by the
publication of a profile in The Jewish Chronicle.
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The headboard of the Winton Train on 60163
Tornado at London Liverpool Street Station
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Winton train
Main
article: Winton Train
On 1
September 2009 a special "Winton Train" set off from the Prague Main railway station. The train,
comprising an original locomotive and carriages used in the 1930s, headed to
London via the original Kindertransport route. On board were several surviving
"Winton children" and their descendants, who were welcomed by Winton
in London. The occasion marked the 70th anniversary of the intended last
Kindertransport, due to set off on 3 September 1939 but prevented by the
outbreak of the Second World War. At the train's departure, a memorial statue
for Winton, designed by Flor Kent, was unveiled at the railway station.
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Memorial of Nicholas Winton, the saviour of
669 jewish children from former Czechoslovakia; located in Prague Main railway
station, installed 2009-SEP-01, sculptor Flor Kent (her other sculpture “Für
Das Kind Kindertransport Memorial” was installed in the Liverpool Street
station, September 2003)
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Honours
In the 1983 Queen's Birthday Honours, Winton was
appointed Member of the Order of the
British Empire (MBE) for his work in establishing the Abbeyfield
homes for the elderly in Britain, and in the 2002 New
Year Honours, he was knighted in recognition of his work on the Czech
Kindertransport. He met the Queen again during her state visit
to Bratislava, Slovakia in October 2008. In 2003,
Winton received the Pride of Britain Award for Lifetime
Achievement. Winton was awarded Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk,
Fourth Class, by the Czech President in 1998. In 2008, he was honoured
by the Czech government in several ways. An elementary school in Kunžak is
named after him, and he was awarded the Cross
of Merit of the Minister of Defence, Grade I. The Czech government
nominated him for the 2008 Nobel
Peace Prize.
The minor planet 19384
Winton was named in his honour by Czech astronomers Jana
Tichá and Miloš Tichý.
A statue of Winton is on Platform 1 of
the Praha hlavní nádraží railway station. It
depicts Winton holding a child and standing next to another one. Created by
Flor Kent, it was unveiled on 1 September 2009 as part of a larger
commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the last Kindertransport train
(see also Winton train, above).
There are also 3 memorials at Liverpool Street Station in London, where
the Kindertransports arrived.
In September 2010, another statue of
Winton was unveiled, this time at Maidenhead railway station by Home
Secretary Theresa May, MP for Maidenhead. Created by
Lydia Karpinska, it depicts Winton sitting on a bench and reading a book.
Winton was baptised as a Christian by
his parents, but his Jewish ancestry disqualified him from being declared a Righteous Among the Nations by Israel. In 2010,
Winton was named a British Hero of the Holocaust by the
British Government. As an adult he didn't subscribe to any faith.
In 2014 the International Raoul
Wallenberg Foundation established a schools' literary competition named
after Winton. The contest is for high school students, who are invited to write
essays about Winton's legacy.
Winton was awarded the Freedom of the
City of London on 23 February 2015.
Order of the White Lion
On 19 May 2014, Winton's 105th
birthday, it was announced he was to receive the Czech Republic’s highest
honour, for giving Czech children "the greatest possible gift: the chance
to live and to be free". On 28 October 2014, Winton was awarded the Order
of the White Lion (Class I) by Czech President Miloš Zeman, the Czech Defence
Ministry having sent a special aircraft to take him to Prague. The award was
made alongside one to Sir Winston Churchill which was accepted by his grandson
Nicholas Soames. Zeman said he regretted the highest Czech award having been
awarded to the two personalities so belatedly, but added "better late than
never". Winton was also able to meet some of the people he rescued 75
years ago, themselves now in their 80s. He said, "I
want to thank you all for this enormous expression of thanks for something
which happened to me nearly 100 years ago - and a 100 years is a heck of a long
time. I am delighted that so many of the children are still about and are here
to thank me."
Popular culture
Winton's work is the subject of three
films by Slovak filmmaker Matej Mináč: the drama All My Loved Ones
(1999), in which Winton was played by Rupert Graves, the documentary The
Power of Good: Nicholas Winton (Síla lidskosti—Nicholas Winton,
2002), which won an Emmy Award. and the documentary drama Nicky's Family
(Nickyho rodina, 2011). A play about Winton, Numbers from Prague,
was performed in Cambridge in January 2011. Winton was featured in the 2000
Warner Bros. documentary written and directed by Mark Jonathan Harris,and
produced by Deborah Oppenheimer, Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the
Kindertransport, which received the Academy Award for Best Documentary
Feature, and the film's accompanying book of the same name.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today
programme, on 28 October 2014, Winton said he thought he had "made a
difference to a lot of people" and went on to say, "I don't think we've learned anything ... the world today is in a
more dangerous situation than it has ever been."
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