Nicholas Winston is one of the heroes of WWII that most do not know about, mostly due to the fact that no one – not even his family knew of his heroics until an old scrapbook was found by his wife in 1988.
Winston worked as a stockbroker until he was 29 when he decided to move to Prague in 1938 and aid Czech refugees. While there he hatched a plan to rescue the Czech Jews he was working with.
Over the coming months he would sneak these people on eight trains headed for Europe, the total numbering 669 people. The ninth train carrying an additional 250 Jews never made it to its destination for reason still unknown.
When asked why he kept it a secret he said in 2009 to Reuters: ““You can’t come up to somebody and say: ‘by the way do you want to know what I did in ’39?’ People don’t talk about what they did in the war.”
This humble hero died surrounded by loved ones:
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LONDON (Reuters) – A man who became known as the “British Schindler” for saving hundreds of Czech children from Nazi persecution in the run-up to World War Two, has died at the age of 106.
Nicholas Winton died on Wednesday with his daughter Barbara and two grandchildren at his side, according to a statement from the Rotary Club of Maidenhead in southern England, of which he was a former president.
Winton managed to bring 669 mostly Jewish children on eight trains to Britain through Germany in 1939 but the ninth train with 250 children never left Prague because the war broke out. None of the 250 children on board was ever seen again.
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