Nicholas Winton was just another 20-something guy living in England when the Nazis declared their war on Jews and sparked the second world war within just three decades. If he wanted, he could have gone on a vacation to Switzerland to ski on the alluring slopes of the Alps just like most of his friends did. But no; he decided to do something for others. He left his life of a successful stockbroker behind and headed to Czechoslovakia. What he did next did not come to light after almost fifty years. Want to know what he did? Just keep reading.
After merely two decades of global destruction in the Great War, the world was facing another crisis when the Nazis started massacring Jewish people. It was during the end of 1938 when Europe was on the brink of a war that Winton, who was closely following the news of holocaust and the horror that Jews in Central Europe were facing, could not just sit out and let people be killed. Not sure what he should do to help, he packed his bags and headed to Czechoslovakia to find out any way he could.
When he reached Prague, he found the city swamped with Jewish people who were desperate to escape before the fumes of the war reached them. While some were lucky enough to escape themselves or send their kids someplace safe, most were stuck there with international borders closed for refugees and conditions in the camps worsening. Neglected by everyone, the children had it worst until Winton decided on what he was going to do.
He set up a shop at a hotel in the center of the Old City in Prague and started getting kids out the as fast as possible. With no experience in carrying out this high-level bureaucratic task, he found it extremely difficult to help everyone as more and more people started coming to him for help. However, he somehow managed to create a list of hundreds of children and returned to London to convince British authorities to help them. The task was not at all easy, and the stockbroker also failed to persuade the US to help the children.
A ray of hope came when the British authorities agreed to accept the children but on the condition that there should be families willing to take these children in. The first 20 children were able to leave Prague on 13 March 1939, just a day before Nazis arrived in Czechoslovakia and Prague. In all, Winton saved the lives of 669 children who faced certain death if he had not come to their rescue.
What is most surprising is the fact that for 50 years, Nicholas Winton did not tell anybody about what he did in Prague and how he saved the lives of 669 children; not even his wife until she found a scrapbook in their attic about all the children that he saved. After the heroic deeds of Winton came to light, an event was organized in his honor by BBC. While Winton thought he was just a part of a taping, he got the surprise of his life when he found sitting next to him the children he had saved 50 years ago.
Here is the link to the tearful video, check it out:
If heroes exist in real life, then Sir Nicholas Winton certainly is one. Nobody told him to, but this man risked his own life to save small children from certain death. He could have lived an amazing life like he was and let everything happen. But he did not. He decided that he could not just let the massacre go on and do nothing. And he did not do this for honor or glory. He did this because he thought it was the right thing to do. His actions should inspire us to do what is right even if we have to sacrifices in life. Though the hero is no longer among us, he should continue to inspire us with what he did more than seven decades ago.
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