British 'Schindler' welcomes in his refugees 70 years on

[Dogberry]

it isnt just what this man did, it is the fact he didn't think to mention it to anyone until his wife found some documents in 1988.

Jewish refugess like many refugess today were not particualrly wanted anywhere, arranging all this and persuading families to take them must have been a mammoth undertaking.

His last train did not make it out and the children aboard were killed.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-children.html

Seventy years ago as frightened children, they were saved from Hitler's clutches by a brave young stockbroker who became known as 'Britain's Schindler'.

Before they could be sent to concentration camps, he shepherded 669 mostly Jewish youngsters aboard eight trains from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia through Germany and to Britain.

On Friday, there were emotional scenes as they were reunited with their saviour, 100-year-old Sir Nicholas Winton, who modestly declared of his extraordinary feat that it was ' wonderful it worked out so well'.
Enlarge Sir Nicholas Winton poses in front of the Winton train at Liverpool Street station

Seventy years later: Sir Nicholas Winton (front) welcomes The Winton Train in central London

About 170 people, including about two dozen of the Holocaust survivors and members of their families, pulled into London's Liverpool Street Station aboard a vintage steam train after a three-day trip across Europe to mark the 70th anniversary of their rescue.

Waiting to greet them was Sir Nicholas, frail and leaning on a stick.

He shook hands with the former evacuees as they stepped off the train from Prague. 'It's wonderful to see you all after 70 years,' he said. 'Don't leave it quite so long until we meet here again.'


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At a ceremony held alongside the platform, Sir Nicholas described the operation to bring the children to Britain in 1939 as 'quite difficult' but added: 'It all worked out very well and it's wonderful that it did work out so well because, after all, history should have made it very different.'

In late 1938, Sir Nicholas, a 29-year-old clerk at the London Stock Exchange, had travelled to Czechoslovakia at the invitation of a friend working at the British Embassy.
Enlarge Evacuees alight the Winton Train

Reenactment: The former evacuees alight from the Winton Train at Liverpool Street Station today. They had boarded at Prague just as they had 70 years ago
Enlarge Sir Nicholas Winton talks to Tal Cohain

Generation game: Sir Nicholas talks to Tal Cohain, whose grandmother was saved by the 'British Schindler'

Alarmed by the influx of refugees from the Sudetenland region recently annexed by Germany, Mr Winton immediately began planning to get Jewish children out of the country.
Sir Nicholas Winton with one of the children he rescued from Czechoslovakia in 1939

Sir Nicholas with one of the children he rescued from Czechoslovakia in 1939

He feared, correctly, that Czechoslovakia would soon be invaded and Jewish residents sent to concentration camps.

He persuaded British officials to accept the children, as long as foster homes could be found, and arranged eight trains that carried 669 children through Germany to Britain in the months before the outbreak of war.

None of the children saw their parents again. One of the evacuees, Alexandra Greensted, 77, who lives in Maidstone, Kent, said at the reunion: 'It's a very emotional day for me. I can't remember much about the actual train journey.

'All I can remember is being at the railway station crying my eyes out. I left my father and two older brothers behind.'

Otto Deutsch, 81, originally from Vienna and now living in Southend, said: 'It's amazing. It happened so many years ago yet I remember it so vividly.
Enlarge A young girl, who is the granddaughter of one of the rescued children, walks past The Winton Train in a reenactment of the events that took place in 1939

Dressed as a refugee: A young girl, who is the granddaughter of one of the rescued children, walks past The Winton Train in a reenactment of the events that took place in 1939

'I never saw my parents again or my sister. My parents were shot and what they did with my sister I really don't want to know.'

Sir Winton's story did not emerge until 1988, when his wife found correspondence referring to the pre-war events.

As prime minister Tony Blair praised him as 'Britain's Schindler', after the German businessman Oskar Schindler, who also saved Jewish lives during the war.

[adela]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_nFuJAF5F0
Here is a video from the BBC Programme where Sir Nicholas Winton were introduced to the children he saved. He didn't know they are going to be in the studio with him. He was in the Czech Republic several times and he is just as modest and humble as a human being can be. He was honored by the Czech President (Vaclav Klaus) and Czech government in several ways and he was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008.