60 Minutes: Sir Nicholas Winton "Saving the Children"

now an extraordinary story from the Second World War the humanitarian story that didn't come to light for decades it concerned the young London a named Nicholas Winton who went to Prague and ended up saving the lives of 669 children mostly Jews from almost certain death his story begins at the end of 1938 with Europe on the brink of war in Germany violence against Jews was escalating and the infamous Munich Agreement paved the way for Hitler's armies to march on opposed into Czechoslovakia in London Nicholas Winton had been following events I knew that refugees fleeing the Nazis were in dire straits he went to Czechoslovakia to see if there was anything he could do to help what's strange is that for almost 50 years he hardly told anyone about what he had accomplished and for 50 years the children knew nothing without who had saved them or how we begin on October 1st 1938 Nazi troops marched into the sedate land the german-speaking region of Czechoslovakia Prague the Czech capital was flooded with desperate people trying to escape a fortunate few were able to send their children abroad these parents mostly Czech Jews since twhirl was coming and wanted to get their children out by chance a cameraman filmed a man holding a boy the 29 year old Londoner his name Nicholas Winton oh I knew was that the people that I met couldn't get out and they were looking of ways of at least getting their children out Nicholas Winton is one of the few people who can bear witness to those days because he's a hundred and four years old he told us he went to Prague to see if he might be able to save some people but what made you think you could do it I work on the motto that if something is not impossible I must be a way of doing it back in London Winton was a successful stockbroker living the good life with a passion for sports but he was deeply concerned about news reports from Czechoslovakia of German persecution I went out into the camps where the people who had been displaced were put and it was winter and it was cold immigration wasn't an option the world's doors were closed to the refugees conditions in the camps were brutal for a hundred and fifty thousand people trapped there especially for the children and no one focused on them until Nicholas Winton but what did he do we went to Jerusalem to Yad Vashem Israel's memorial to the victims of the Holocaust and asked doctor David silver flying as senior historian there in Winton went set up shop in a hotel in the centre of the old city in Prague and began looking into how can I organize getting some of these refugees particularly the children out of here what kind of experience did he have to qualify him for this immense bureaucratic task nun Winton set up a small organisation with one aim to get as many kids out as fast as possible people started coming to him in increasing numbers he didn't have time in the day to meet them all he'd work till 2:00 in the morning get up early in the morning to meet the next people as more and more iconic saying take my child take my child by the time he returned to London he had a list of hundreds of children and sent out to convinced British authorities to take him seriously he did it by taking stationery from an established refugee organization adding children's section and making himself chairman so that eventually they had to adopt me so in fact you managed to do what you did through a little deception a little smoke and mirrors yes to a certain extent is it required quite a bit of ingenuity no just a quarter printing press to get them the new paper printed the children's section operated from a tiny office in central London Winston's mother was in charge the staff were all volunteers during the day Winton worked as a stockbroker evenings he wrestled with a British bureaucracy did you approach any other countries to take some of the children the Americans but the Americans wouldn't take him in which was a pity we could have got a lot more out Winton had written President Roosevelt asking the u.s. to take in more children a minor official at the US Embassy in London wrote back the US was unable to help Britain agreed to a after children but only if went and found families willing to take them in so he circulated the children's pictures to advertise them but even after a family chose a child British authorities were slow in issuing travel documents so Winton started having them forged he also spread some money around took a bit of blackmail on my part you were indulging in blackmail and forgery to get the children out I've never that good like that before but you seem to be enjoying it it was with Samantha the first 20 children left Prague on March 14 1939 the next day German fields occupied Prague in the rest of Czechoslovakia Hitler rode through the streets triumphant hugo myzel was 10 years old do you remember the Germans coming into Czechoslovakia not only do I remember I personally saw Hitler standing up in the car and the children were expected to say hi Hitler and so forth I remember as if yesterday it wasn't long before violence against Jews property confiscations and forced labor that began in the Sudetenland spread throughout Czechoslovakia but the Nazis allowed Winton strains to leave in keeping with their policy to cleanse Europe of Jews Huber Michael's parents decided it was time to put him and his brother on one of the trains I remember that they told us that we were going to England maybe two or three months it would be a holiday for us and that they would join us very shortly and you believed them absolutely were your parents emotional when they said goodbye to you no i reaiiy asked myself that question many times how my parents had the strength sorry it never occurred to me that what they were saying to us was not true in other words that they realized that they they would not be joining us within a short period of time over the spring and summer of 1939 seven trains carried over 600 children through the heart of Nazi Germany to Holland where they took a ferry to the English coast from there they caught a train to London an eighth train carrying 250 more was scheduled to leave Prague on September 1st but that's the day the war began they were all of a station even on the train waiting to go and Boris declared so the train ever lived never heard really what happened to all those children but there's reason to suspect that not many of them survived I think that's true two years after that last train the Nazis began implementing the final solution their planned to slaughter all the Jews of Europe Czech Jews were rounded up and shipped to toresen Stud an old military garrison town that an hour north of Prague their first stop on the road to annihilation these tracks were the exit from to raisins dot the only exit the tracks led East the trains were called Polish transports destination outfits some 90,000 people took that one-way ride among them almost all the children's her Nicholas wasn't able to get out in time their parents and the parents of the children already in England after the war you went back to Czechoslovakia was there one instant where you accepted the fact that your parents were dead for three years we used to visit when trains came from Siberia especially when the Communists moved in in 1948 a lot of people started come back from Siberia so I would go to the station hoping and when films were being shown of people walking in concentration camps ouch wits and so forth there's so many shots being taken by the Germans and so forth never stop looking the name of every Czech Jew murdered in the Holocaust is painted on the walls of Prague's Pincus synagogue over seventy seven thousand three hundred names including our Nostra and pavla myzel Hugo's parents and Nicholas Winton during the war he volunteered for an ambulance unit for the Red Cross then trained pilots for the Royal Air Force he got married raised a family earned a comfortable living for 50 years he told hardly anyone what he had done a question which I know intrigues everyone who hears your story is why did you keep it secret for so long I didn't really keep it secret I just didn't do a good outfit all this time you're in England then you go back to Czechoslovakia then you go to Israel you still had no idea how your departure from Czechoslovakia had been organized absolutely no idea and you learned that by seeing it on television that's right in 1988 the BBC learned about Winton story and invited him to be part of a program he had no idea that the people sitting around him were people he had saved come on is there anyone in our audience tonight who owes their life to Nicholas Winton if so could you stand up to mr. which would you like to turn around on behalf of all of them thank you very much indeed I suppose it was the most emotional moment of my life suddenly being confronted with all these children who weren't by any means children animal no they weren't and for the first time they looked at you and knew that you were the reason that they were alive yeah cool I wore this around my neck and this is the actual huh that we were given to come to England and another of the children the chief a lady milliner dreadful veins describes Winton as one of the most modest people she's ever met why do you think he didn't say anything for 50 years I think was it is in his nature he really felt that he done all he could and having got those children settled he felt been there done that my job's done have that other things to do other things for the last 50 years which ins been helping mentally handicapped people and building homes through the elderly we've just opened our second old people's home and it's full and it's doing very well and there plenty of old people like me to go in but you're not there you're at home well I'd hate to go into one of my own homes don't put that Seneca last winter in 2003 Winton was knighted and became Sir Nicholas Winton in the Czech Republic he's become a national hero he was celebrated in a documentary called Nicky's family but he isn't really comfortable with all the adulation I'm not interested in the post I think there's too much emphasis nowadays on the past and what has happened and nobody is concentrating on the person to the future in 1939 Nicholas Winton used a two-week vacation to go to Prague and ended up saving the lives of 669 children in a decade since of course the children had children who then had children and so on and the numbers multiplied you want to summarize it in one sentence a guy takes a two-week vacation immense up with 15,000 children yeah yeah it's a pretty good story it's a great story there's got children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren none of them would be here if it hadn't been for a deck that's right yeah terrible responsibilities

Channel: Menemsha Films

Views: 3,605,708

Keywords: Nicholas Winton (Person Or Being In Fiction), 60 Minutes (TV Program), Nicky's Family (Film), Kindertransport (Field Of Study), Nobel Peace Prize (Award Category), Czech Republic (Country), Czechoslovakia (Country), England (Country), Nicholas Winton (Chivalric Order Member), Bob Simon

Id: c0aoifNziKQ

Length: 15min 14sec (914 seconds)

Published: Tue May 27 2014