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Sir Nicholas Winton 1909-2015

Discussion in 'WWII Era Obituaries (non-military service)' started by Smiley 2.0, Jul 1, 2015.

  1. Smiley 2.0

    Smiley 2.0 Smiles

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    It has been a few days since it occurred but Sir Nicholas Winton, the British stockbroker who saved the lives of 669 Jewish children died on July 1.

    "Who's helping the children?”

    That was the question that Nicholas Winton, a 29-year-old English stockbroker, asked when he found himself in Prague in 1938. As war loomed in Europe, humanitarian groups had initiated efforts to aid Jews, political refugees and other groups endangered by Hitler’s advancing threat. But Mr. Winton found no such effort underway specifically for the children of Czechoslovakia.

    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.

    By the time of his death July 1 at 106, Mr. Winton was internationally celebrated as a hero of the Holocaust. He often was described as a British Schindler, a reference to the German industrialist Oskar Schindler, whose efforts to rescue 1,200 Jews was dramatized in director Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film “Schindler’s List.”

    Mr. Winton appeared uncomfortable with the honors bestowed on him, which included a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II, and remarked that the work accounted for “just nine months in a very long life.” "

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/nicholas-winton-rescuer-of-children-during-the-holocaust-dies-at-106/2015/07/01/78abbe24-2001-11e5-bf41-c23f5d3face1_story.html?tid=pm_world_pop_b
     
    TD-Tommy776, GRW and lwd like this.
  2. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WWII Veteran

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  3. Skipper

    Skipper Kommodore

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    May this good man rest in peace. :poppy:
     

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