Sir Nicholas Winton, who saved hundreds of children from Nazi persecution, dies aged 106

The Maidenhead Advertiser [UK]
01 July 2015

Sir Nicholas Winton, the Maidenhead man who saved hundreds of Czech Jewish children from Nazi persecution, has died aged 106.

The Rotary Club of Maidenhead announced today that Sir Nicholas, who lived in Pinkneys Green, died peacefully early this morning with his daughter Barbara and two grandchildren at his side. 

He passed away exactly 76 years to the day since a train carrying 241 children he had saved departed from Prague.

In total, he helped smuggle 669 mostly Jewish children from the former Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War. They were transported to Britain, and rehomed.

Paying tribute on Twitter, Prime Minister David Cameron said: “The world has lost a great man. We must never forget Sir Nicholas Winton’s humanity in saving so many children from the Holocaust.”

Sir Nicholas was born on May 19, 1909 in London.

He worked as a stockbroker before heading to Prague in 1938 to help with welfare work for Czech refugees…

…”Winton always expressed surprise at the attention he received and denied that he was courageous, claiming that ‘I was at the right place at the right time’. He was mistaken. He deliberately went to the right place and then acted in the right way, and at a time when many others did neither.

“He stands out as a beacon for all those who respond to calls for help when they could so easily pretend not to hear.”

 

 

The complete article is at The Maidenhead Advertiser.

 

 

Nicholas Winton, rescuer of children during the Holocaust, dies at 106

…Inspired by the Kindertransport, a rescue operation then in place for children in Germany and Nazi-occupied Austria, Mr. Winton set about a mission he called his “wartime gesture.” He was credited with saving, through his personal initiative, the lives of at least 669 boys and girls. For decades after the war, he kept his work secret…

 

 

Mr. Winton is shown here in an undated family photograph with one of the children he rescued. (PA/Press Association Images)

Mr. Winton is shown here in an undated family photograph with one of the children he rescued. (PA/Press Association Images)


 

 

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