Nicholas Winton: The British Schindler’s Untold Story

In December 1938, Nicholas Winton was packing his bags for a skiing holiday in Switzerland. One phone call changed everything. Instead of heading for the slopes, he travelled to Prague where, often listening to parents’ pleas while shaving in his hotel room, he launched a rescue operation that would go down in history as one of the most extraordinary humanitarian efforts of the 20th century.

The London Stockbroker

Nicholas Winton was born in 1909 in London’s West Hampstead as the son of Jewish immigrants from Germany. However, his parents decided their son should be baptized in the Anglican Church, hoping it would grant him better prospects in British society. Winton chose a career as a stockbroker and led the normal life of a middle-class citizen.

Everything changed just before Christmas 1938. His friend Martin Blake, a teacher at the prestigious Westminster School and a member of the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia, called him with an urgent request for help. Europe stood on the verge of disaster, and thousands of Jewish families in Czechoslovakia were desperately searching for a way to escape Nazi terror.

Without hesitation, Winton cancelled his ski trip and went to Prague. What he saw there would change the course of his life. Doreen Warriner, a British humanitarian, took him to overcrowded refugee camps where conditions were inhumane and fear hung in the air.

A Hotel Room as Command Center

Together with volunteers from Britain and Canada, Winton set up an improvised office at a dining table in a hotel on Wenceslas Square. For three weeks, he worked tirelessly, collecting applications from desperate parents who were willing to give up their children to strangers to save their lives.

Each morning, while shaving, he listened to more dramatic stories. He wrote down children’s names, details, and tried to remember each face. He knew time was against them, and that the Munich Agreement of September 1938 could be violated by Hitler at any moment.

In January 1939, Winton returned to London with a list of children and began the second phase of his mission. In the evenings and on weekends, after a full day as a stockbroker, he raised funds and recruited British families willing to give these children a new home. His mother became an invaluable helper in the operation.

Racing Against Time and the Nazi Machine

The first transport of children left Prague on March 14, 1939. It was by airplane, and happened literally on the eve of the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia. The next day, Czech territories were incorporated into the Third Reich, and Slovakia became a puppet state.

From March to August 1939, Winton and his friends organized seven further train transports. The children traveled through the Netherlands and from there by ship to England. Winton published photos of the young refugees in Picture Post magazine, searching for foster families for them.

He also tried to involve other countries in the rescue operation. He wrote to American politicians, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt, pleading for more children to be taken in. All refusals. Only Sweden among the countries agreed to help. Winton later stated that with more support, he could have saved two thousand more children.

The Last Train That Never Departed

The last organized transport left Prague on August 2, 1939. Another was planned for September 1, meant to carry 250 children. On that very day, Hitler invaded Poland and World War II broke out. The train never left.

Of the 250 children scheduled for the train, only two survived the war. Most parents of the children rescued by Winton died in the Auschwitz concentration camp. The 669 lives saved are all that remain of many families.

After the war, Winton never spoke of his rescue operation. He returned to normal life, started a family, and for nearly fifty years kept silent about what he had done. Only in the late 1980s, when his wife Grete accidentally discovered a notebook in their home with the details of the 669 children, did the story come out, changing their lives forever.

An Unwilling Hero

In 1988 Winton was invited to the BBC program That’s Life!, not knowing what awaited him. In the studio, he met dozens of people he had saved as children, along with the descendants of those whose lives were owed to him. The British press dubbed him Britain’s Schindler.

Queen Elizabeth II knighted him in 2003 for services to humanity. In 2014, Czech President Miloš Zeman awarded him the Order of the White Lion, First Class, the highest Czech honor. Winton accepted honors with characteristic modesty.

When asked why he decided to save so many, he simply said something had to be done. He quoted Doreen Warriner’s words from 1938: if anything can be done, you may as well try to do it. Nicholas Winton passed away on July 1, 2015 at the age of 106, leaving behind a legacy that numbers in the thousands—descendants of those 669 children he rescued.