In 1938, Nicholas Winton, a young stockbroker from London planned to spend his 2-week vacation skiing on the Alps. He went to Prague instead, and devoted the next months to saving the lives of 669 children. He arranged for trains -- "Kindertransport" -- that carried mostly Jewish, but other children as well out of then-Czechoslovakia.
To ensure the safety of these children required battling bureaucracy as well as fundraising. In London, Winton raised money to pay for the transport of these kids from Prague to England, including a 50-pound-per-child guarantee that was demanded by the British government. Besides that, he also had to find families willing to care for these refugees, all while he worked as a stockbroker during the day. The late afternoon and evenings were devoted to this worthy cause.
In total, he managed to get 8 of 9 Kindertransport trains loaded with 669 children out of Czechoslovakia. The last train carried 250 children, but when WWII began the Nazis stopped the train and these children eventually perished in concentration camps. Nevertheless, Winton and his colleagues saved at least 669 children: 566 of them Jewish, 52 Unitarian, 34 Catholic and 17 others.
He never spoke about this for over 50 years until his wife discovered a scrapbook with details about some of the children. For his part, in 2003, Queen Elizabeth II knighted him and the Czech Republic honoured him with a similar accolade -- the Order of the White Lion (1st class). Winton was the subject of numerous films. In 2015, he died at age 106.
Stamps dedicated to Sir Nicholas Winton have been issued from the the UK and Israel as well.
Source: Czech Post
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