A stockbroker named Nicholas Winton brought saved the lives of 669

A stockbroker named Nicholas Winton brought saved the lives of 669

A stockbroker named Nicholas Winton brought saved the lives of 669 Czechoslovakian Jewish children by taking them to England

He refused to take credit until his wife found a scrapbook of the children that he saved and gave it to BBC. He will turn 104 later this year.

Before Christmas 1938 Winton was about to travel to Switzerland for a skiing holiday, when he decided instead to travel to Prague, Czechoslovakia, to help a friend who was involved in Jewish refugee work. There he single-handedly established an organisation to aid children from Jewish families at risk from the Nazis. He set up an office at a dining room table in his hotel in Wenceslas Square. In November 1938, shortly after Kristallnacht, the House of Commons had approved a measure that would permit the entry of refugees younger than 17 years old into Britain, if they had a place to stay and a warranty of £50 was deposited for a ticket for their eventual return to their country of origin.


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,[28] and he was awarded the Cross of Merit of the Minister of Defence, Grade I. He was also nominated by the Czech government for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize.


Although Winton was baptised as Christian, his ancestry was considered entirely Jewish, which disqualified him from being declared a Righteous Gentile. In 2010, Winton was named a British Hero of the Holocaust by the British Government.


Another statue in his honour is on ‘platform one’ 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 as part of a larger commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the last Kindertransport train, 1 September 2009

A stockbroker named Nicholas Winton brought saved the lives of 669

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