Holocaust hero speechless at reunion with children he saved | History | News
Photograph of Sir Nicholas Winton in 2014 (Image: Getty)
Eighty years later, the Holocaust remains one of humanity’s darkest moments. Six million Jews and millions of other Jews were murdered by the Nazis between 1941 and 1945. Hitler’s ‘final solution’ involved rounding up the Jewish people and transporting them to camps in German-occupied Poland, parts of the Soviet Union and beyond, where they faced systematic extermination.
The death toll would have been even higher had it not been for the courage of heroes like Sir Nicholas Winton. Born in Hampstead, Sir Nicholas played a pivotal role in organizing the evacuation of Jewish children from Czechoslovakia through the Kindertransport program as the Second World War approached.
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He is known to have personally saved at least 669 young people from certain death under Nazi rule, but his extraordinary story remained secret for almost four decades. An extraordinary clip from a 1988 episode of the BBC’s consumer affairs program That’s Life! It captures the emotional moment when Sir Nicholas is reunited with some of those he saved, reports the mirror.
In the footage, presenter Dame Esther Rantzen describes Sir Nicholas’ extraordinary efforts by displaying the book in which he meticulously documented the details of every child he saved. It says: “We have asked as many of these adult children as possible to contact us so that they may have the opportunity to thank Mr. Winton personally. May I ask if there is anyone in our audience this evening who owes his life to Nicholas Winton? If so, would you please stand?”
In an extraordinary moment, a large number of people around Sir Nicholas rose to their feet, making him completely lost in words.
The footage has captivated audiences for nearly 40 years, with Piers Morgan calling it “the greatest moment in the history of television”. It is currently being distributed once again ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27th.
Sir Nicholas had apparently kept quiet about his actions before 1939, until his wife Grete found his papers hidden in an old briefcase. He was later celebrated as a hero in That’s Life! was persuaded to join the program.
His actions have been compared to German industrialist Oskar Schindler, who is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust.
Sir Nicholas was 29 when he went to Prague shortly after Christmas 1938; He had been invited by a friend to witness the desperate plight of Jewish refugees fleeing across the German border. Realizing the dangers, he organized train journeys to transport the children to Britain and found host families ready to care for the youngsters into adulthood.
He was knighted in 2003 and in 2014 was awarded the Order of the White Lion, the Czech Republic’s most prestigious honour. His remarkable story was brought to the big screen, played by Sir Anthony Hopkins in the 2023 movie One Life.
Sir Nicholas died in 2015, aged 106.
A tribute on Holocaust Remembrance Day Foundation website writes: “Sir Nicholas Winton was an inspiration to many people around the world. He humbly insisted that everyone else would do the same. But they did not. Most people stood by.”
