Great Britain has its own Oscar Schindler, now an incredible 105 years of age. From Australia's ABC radio program Correspondent's Report.....
"ELIZABETH JACKSON: For most of us raising a family, forming productive happy relationships, not harming too many people along the way, could be the measure of a successful life.
Not many of us get to save lives, but Sir Nicholas Winton did, and thousands owe their existence to him.
And, at 105, the man dubbed the 'British Schindler' has been honoured in the UK for saving mainly Jewish children just before the outbreak of World War Two.
Philip Williams tells his story.
(Brass band playing)
PHILIP WILLIAMS: Five years after qualifying for a telegram from the Queen for his 100th birthday, Nicholas Winton was in the Czech capital Prague being presented with the nation's highest honour.
(Official announcement in Czech)
Back in 1938, he made a decision that would change his and thousands of other people's lives. Instead of taking a skiing holiday as planned, he travelled to what was then Czechoslovakia and saw the refugee camps outside Prague.
As the son of German Jews, he knew the terrible danger facing these people.
NICHOLAS WINTON: I knew better than most, and certainly better than the politicians, what was going on in Germany. I mean, we had staying with us people who were refugees from Germany at that time, some who knew they were in danger of their lives.
(Steam train pulling out of station)
PHILIP WILLIAMS: He organised eight trainloads of children to be taken from Prague to London - the so-called Kindertransports - and found foster parents for all 669 of them.
A ninth train was stopped by the outbreak of war; of the 250 children, none survived the war.
(Fanfare at Czech ceremony)
PHILIP WILLIAMS: In the grand room, the ceremony was witnessed by some of those he saved, now in their 80s, many looking older than Nicholas Winton, still as sharp as he is modest.
NICHOLAS WINTON: In a way perhaps, I shouldn't have lived so long to give everybody the opportunity to exaggerate everything in the way they are doing today.
PHILIP WILLIAMS: His story remained hidden, even from his own family, for 50 years, until his wife stumbled on a scrapbook. But it wasn't widely known until an extraordinary TV program in the 1980s. Sir Nicholas Winton, as he then was, was in a studio audience of several hundred when this question was asked:
PROGRAM HOST: Can I ask, is there anyone in our audience tonight who owes their life to Nicholas Winton? If so, could you stand up please?
(Movement in audience)
Mr Winton, would you like to turn around?
PHILIP WILLIAMS: To his utter amazement, everyone he had assumed was part of a random audience stood up.
PROGRAM HOST: You'll have the chance to meet these people properly after the program. In the meantime Mr Winton, on behalf of all of them, thank you very much indeed.
(Applause)
PHILIP WILLIAMS: As those he saved had families, the Winton kindertransport tree has grown to 5,000 people.
(Fanfare at Czech ceremony)
At 105, he has reached a grand vantage point few of us will ever know, and surveying the conflicts and tensions now, he is gripped by pessimism.
NICHOLAS WINTON: I don't think we ever learn from the mistakes of the past. No, I don't think we've learnt anything. I mean, we're now - the world today - is in a more dangerous situation than it has ever been, and so long as you've got weapons of mass destruction which can finish off any conflict, nothing is safe anymore.
(Sound of steam train)
PHILIP WILLIAMS: But he did make safe those little children, bewildered in a new country, a new language, far from their families most of whom were killed. Clutching their single suitcase at Liverpool Street station, it was all so alien, but they were safe and they did survive.
The actions of one determined, principled individual made all the difference."
"ELIZABETH JACKSON: For most of us raising a family, forming productive happy relationships, not harming too many people along the way, could be the measure of a successful life.
Not many of us get to save lives, but Sir Nicholas Winton did, and thousands owe their existence to him.
And, at 105, the man dubbed the 'British Schindler' has been honoured in the UK for saving mainly Jewish children just before the outbreak of World War Two.
Philip Williams tells his story.
(Brass band playing)
PHILIP WILLIAMS: Five years after qualifying for a telegram from the Queen for his 100th birthday, Nicholas Winton was in the Czech capital Prague being presented with the nation's highest honour.
(Official announcement in Czech)
Back in 1938, he made a decision that would change his and thousands of other people's lives. Instead of taking a skiing holiday as planned, he travelled to what was then Czechoslovakia and saw the refugee camps outside Prague.
As the son of German Jews, he knew the terrible danger facing these people.
NICHOLAS WINTON: I knew better than most, and certainly better than the politicians, what was going on in Germany. I mean, we had staying with us people who were refugees from Germany at that time, some who knew they were in danger of their lives.
(Steam train pulling out of station)
PHILIP WILLIAMS: He organised eight trainloads of children to be taken from Prague to London - the so-called Kindertransports - and found foster parents for all 669 of them.
A ninth train was stopped by the outbreak of war; of the 250 children, none survived the war.
(Fanfare at Czech ceremony)
PHILIP WILLIAMS: In the grand room, the ceremony was witnessed by some of those he saved, now in their 80s, many looking older than Nicholas Winton, still as sharp as he is modest.
NICHOLAS WINTON: In a way perhaps, I shouldn't have lived so long to give everybody the opportunity to exaggerate everything in the way they are doing today.
PHILIP WILLIAMS: His story remained hidden, even from his own family, for 50 years, until his wife stumbled on a scrapbook. But it wasn't widely known until an extraordinary TV program in the 1980s. Sir Nicholas Winton, as he then was, was in a studio audience of several hundred when this question was asked:
PROGRAM HOST: Can I ask, is there anyone in our audience tonight who owes their life to Nicholas Winton? If so, could you stand up please?
(Movement in audience)
Mr Winton, would you like to turn around?
PHILIP WILLIAMS: To his utter amazement, everyone he had assumed was part of a random audience stood up.
PROGRAM HOST: You'll have the chance to meet these people properly after the program. In the meantime Mr Winton, on behalf of all of them, thank you very much indeed.
(Applause)
PHILIP WILLIAMS: As those he saved had families, the Winton kindertransport tree has grown to 5,000 people.
(Fanfare at Czech ceremony)
At 105, he has reached a grand vantage point few of us will ever know, and surveying the conflicts and tensions now, he is gripped by pessimism.
NICHOLAS WINTON: I don't think we ever learn from the mistakes of the past. No, I don't think we've learnt anything. I mean, we're now - the world today - is in a more dangerous situation than it has ever been, and so long as you've got weapons of mass destruction which can finish off any conflict, nothing is safe anymore.
(Sound of steam train)
PHILIP WILLIAMS: But he did make safe those little children, bewildered in a new country, a new language, far from their families most of whom were killed. Clutching their single suitcase at Liverpool Street station, it was all so alien, but they were safe and they did survive.
The actions of one determined, principled individual made all the difference."
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