Nicholas Winton - Hero of the Holocaust in Occupied Czechoslovakia - Dead at 106. Sad News.

[Peter Lemkin]

Please...if you have things to say about Schindler, kindly start a thread for that. I'm not aware of any major failures on Oskar Shindler's part - he was 'good for what he was' - a business man working with the Nazis in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia [as well]. Had all other such business men done as he had, many hundreds of thousands more would have survived. It is a misnomer to use Schindler to 'explain' Winton, and people do only because Schindler is better known, as you point out.

Yes, Winton had a very long life and a very full one - full of doing wonderful things beyond what he did during the War, though nothing equaling that [a hard act to follow!]. Someone recently wrote to me asking about Winton and how to get in contact with him. I gave them the family's email address, but warned them to hurry, for at 106 one never knows. About a year ago some very stupid interviewer asked him a series of rather tasteless questions. One was if he believed in a god. Winton said he did not, but wasn't offended by those who did. They then asked Winton what he thought about his own death....Winton paused and looked at the woman as if to say 'what a stupid and thoughtless question', but answered, 'I'm not afraid of death, but I'm sure not looking forward to it!' He is survived by a daughter and son; she wrote his official biography; he lectures about his father and how one person can make a difference in history. Winton is survived by his aprox. 670 saved children and their thousands of grand and great-grand children who never would have existed beyond the Holocaust if not for Winton, who's work was more complex than one might think. His wife died a few years ago - and he has outlived a few of his rescued 'children' too. If interested there have been a number of good films made about Winton's life, work and his 'children' saved in the 'kindertransports' [the last of which was stopped by the Nazis - it contained the highest number of children of all of the trains.....and more were planned...but the Nazis decided to close this escape route down, after allowing it for a while. Nicky was crushed by the loss of that last train, as well as by knowing and seeing with his own eyes the parents of all those children saying 'goodbye Dear, we'll join you soon in England'; the parents knowing full well they were telling an untruth in order to save their children - as it was the only way to do so. The Nazi's would not allow any adults to get the same special passes and visas as the children obtained through Winton. I find it poignant that he died on the anniversary date of the last train that didn't make it 76 years to the day earlier.

One of the actual trains used - which carried many of his saved children for a repeat ride in 2009. Also, a statue in memory to Winton at the main train station in Prague at the correct track for all of his trains.

Winton kept modestly 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 program 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 program 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 with tears in their eyes.

Speaking on 28 October 2014, Winton said he acknowledged that he had "made a difference to a lot of people", but 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."