humanitarian who organized the rescue of 669 mostly Jewish children from German-occupied

Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War, in an operation later known as the Czech

Kindertransport. Winton found homes for the children and arranged for their safe passage

to Britain. The UK press has dubbed him the "British Schindler".

Early life Winton was born in Hampstead, London, the

son of German Jewish parents who had moved to London in 1907. Their family name was Wertheim,

but they subsequently changed it to Winton in an effort at integration. The family eventually

converted to Christianity, and Winton was baptised.

In 1923, Winton entered Stowe School, which had just opened. He left without graduating,

attending night school while volunteering at the Midland Bank. Some time later, he went

to Hamburg, where he began to work at Behrens Bank, and then Wasserman Bank in Berlin. In

1931, he moved to France, where he worked for the Banque Nationale de Crédit in Paris,

and earned a banking qualification. On returning to London, he worked as a stockbroker at the

London Stock Exchange. Humanitarian work

Just before Christmas 1938, Winton was about to travel to Switzerland for a skiing holiday,

when he decided instead to travel to Prague to help his friend Martin Blake, who was involved

in Jewish refugee work, and had called him asking for his help. There he single-handedly

established an organization 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. The Netherlands

An important obstacle was getting official permission to cross into the Netherlands,

as the children were destined to embark on the ferry at the Hook of Holland. After Kristallnacht

on 9–10 November 1938, the Dutch government had officially closed its borders to any Jewish

refugees, and the border guards (marechaussee) actively searched for them and returned their

captives to Germany, despite the horrors of Kristallnacht being well known in the Low

Countries (for instance, from the Dutch–German border the synagogue in Aachen could be seen

burning, only 3 miles away). Winton nevertheless succeeded, thanks to the

guarantees he had obtained from the British. After the first train, things went relatively

well crossing the Netherlands. Also active in saving Jewish children – some 10,000,

mostly from Vienna and Berlin and mostly also via the Hook – was the Dutchwoman Gertruida

Wijsmuller-Meier, so the plight of Jewish children was well known in the Netherlands.

It is not known whether Winton and 'Tante Truus' (auntie Truus), as she was commonly

known, ever met. In 2012 a statue was erected on the quay at the Hook to commemorate all

those who saved Jewish children. Winton found homes for 669 children, many

of whose parents perished in Auschwitz. Winton's mother also worked with him to place the children

in homes, and later hostels. Throughout the summer he placed advertisements seeking families

to take them in. The last group of 250, scheduled to leave Prague on 1 September 1939, did not

reach safety; the Nazis had invaded Poland, marking the start of World War II, and the

children later perished in the concentration camps.

With the coming of war, Winton sought registration as a conscientious objector and served with

the Red Cross, but in 1940 he rescinded his objection to join the Royal Air Force, Administrative

and Special Duties Branch. He was initially an airman, rising to sergeant by the time

he was commissioned on 22 June 1944 as an acting pilot officer on probation. On 17 August

1944 he was promoted to pilot officer on probation. He was promoted to the rank of war substantive

flying officer on 17 February 1945. He relinquished his commission on 19 May 1954, retaining the

honorary rank of flight lieutenant. Winton kept 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 programme That's Life! when he was invited as a member of the

audience. At one point Winton's scrapbook was shown, and his achievements explained.

The host of the programme, Esther Rantzen, 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. Notable people saved

Alfred Dubs,Baron Dubs Karel Reisz

Joe Schlesinger Renata Laxova

Heini Halberstam Hugo Marom

Sir Nicholas is on record as acknowledging the vital roles of Beatrice Wellington, Doreen

Warriner, Trevor Chadwick and others in Prague. Winton was only in Prague for about three

weeks before the Nazis invaded. He never set foot on Prague Station. As he wrote "...Chadwick

did the more difficult and dangerous work after the Nazis invaded...he deserves all

praise". The full story is told in The Rescue of the Prague Refugees 1938–39, with which

Sir Nicholas says he is "delighted". Honours

In the 1983 Queen's Birthday Honours, Winton was appointed Member of the Order of the British

Empire (MBE) for his work in establishing the Abbeyfield homes for the elderly in Britain,

and in the 2002 New Year Honours, he was knighted in recognition of his work on the Czech Kindertransport.

He met the Queen again during her state visit to Bratislava, Slovakia in October 2008. In

2003, Winton received the Pride of Britain Award for Lifetime Achievement.

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, and he was awarded the Cross of Merit of the Minister

of Defence, Grade I. The Czech government nominated him for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize.

The minor planet 19384 Winton was named in his honour by Czech astronomers Jana Tichá

and Miloš Tichý. Although Winton was baptised as a Christian,

his Jewish origins disqualified him from being declared a Righteous Among the Nations by

Israel. In 2010, Winton was named a British Hero of the Holocaust by the British Government.

A statue in his honour was unveiled at Maidenhead railway station by Home Secretary and local

MP for Maidenhead, Theresa May, in September 2010. Created by Lydia Karpinska, it depicts

Winton relaxing on a bench whilst reading a book.

Another statue in his honour is on Platform 1 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 (see also Winton train, below).

100th birthday To celebrate his 100th birthday, he flew over

the White Waltham Airfield in a microlight piloted by Judy Leden, the daughter of one

of the boys he saved. His birthday was also marked by the publication of a profile in

the Jewish Chronicle. Winton train

On 1 September 2009 a special "Winton Train" set off from the Prague Main railway station.

The train, comprising an original locomotive and carriages used in the 1930s, headed to

London via the original Kindertransport route. On board were several surviving "Winton children"

and their descendants, who were welcomed by Winton in London. The occasion marked the

70th anniversary of the intended last Kindertransport, due to set off on 3 September 1939 but prevented

by the outbreak of the Second World War. At the train's departure, Winton's statue was

unveiled at the railway station. Popular culture

Winton's work is the subject of three films by Slovak filmmaker Matej Mináč: the drama

All My Loved Ones (1999), in which Winton was played by Rupert Graves, the documentary

The Power of Good: Nicholas Winton (Síla lidskosti—Nicholas Winton, 2002), which

won an Emmy Award. and the documentary drama Nicky's Family (Nickyho rodina, 2011). A play

about Winton, Numbers from Prague, was performed in Cambridge in January 2011.