Sir Nicholas Winton, 1909-2015

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bobledrew

Inveterate yammerer
May 13, 2010
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Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
If you don't recognize this name, then let me give you the sketch.

In the years before the Second World War, a young stockbroker dropped all the bits of his life to go to Prague. He arranged for Kindertransport -- eight trains that would get Jewish children out of the country before the Nazis came. Then he convinced the British government to let them in. And he found them foster families. A ninth train didn't make it out. Those children didn't survive the war.

After he did what he could? He said nothing. His wife didn't know about it. Nobody knew about it, for 50 years, until his wife found some old papers in their attic.

He saved 669 children. He died at the age of 106, on the 76th anniversary of the departure of a train carrying 241 children from Prague to safety.

Among those he saved was a young man named Joe Schlesinger, who became a renowned journalist here in Canada.