The "British Schindler" is knighted
25In late 1938 Nicholas Winton traveled to Czechoslovakia, which had just been carved up by Nazi Germany and its allies and began working with a network of people that were helping to evacuate jewish children.
Thanks to these efforts he is credited with saving 669 children and including their descendants over 3700 people are said to be alive today because his actions.
Winton’s efforts went largely unacknowledged until a 1988 BBC show surprised him with a reunion that included dozens of the children that he saved as well as their children and grandchildren.
Winton died 106 years old in 2015
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Tragically, a train that Winton had organized with 250 children on board was prevented from leaving because Britain had declared War on Germany after the invasion of Poland. None of these children or their families survived.
Notable people saved:
Leslie Baruch Brent (1925–2019), immunologist who did groundbreaking work on immune tolerance.
Alf Dubs, Baron Dubs (born 1932), British Labour Party politician and former Member of Parliament
Heini Halberstam (1926–2014), mathematician
Renata Laxova (1931–2020), paediatric geneticist
Isi Metzstein (1928–2012), modernist architect
Gerda Mayer (1927–2021), poet
Karel Reisz (1926–2002), filmmaker
Joe Schlesinger (1928–2019), Canadian television journalist and author
Yitzchok Tuvia Weiss (1926–2022), Chief Rabbi of the Edah HaChareidis in Jerusalem
Vera Gissing (1928–2022), writer and translator