It wasn’t until his wife found a book in the attic with the names of all the children Nicholas had managed to save that his story finally came to light. In 2003, Nikola was knighted by the Queen and in 2014 he received the highest honor of the Czech Republic, the Order of the White Lion. Nicholas died in 2015 at the age of 106
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During the nine months before the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, 10,000 Jewish children aged 17 and under were evacuated from Germany, Austria, Poland and Czechoslovakia and brought to the United Kingdom as refugees.
It became known as the Kindertransport, which translates from German as “children’s transport”, and offers a rare story of hope and salvation during one of the darkest periods in human history. Since Hitler and the Nazis came to power in 1933, life for Jewish Germans became increasingly difficult. Many anti-Semitic laws were passed in the following years and a series of directives began to restrict the human rights of Jews in Germany. In 1938, countries from all over the world gathered in France for the Évian Conference. This was the initiative of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the hope was to obtain guarantees that countries would accept more Jewish refugees who wanted to leave Nazi Germany. The conference ended without much progress, and on the night of November 9-10, 1938, the persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany escalated dramatically.
It would become known as Kristallnacht (“Night of Broken Glass”) as state-sanctioned riots targeting Jews erupted across the country. When it was over, 91 Jews had been killed, 30,000 had been arrested and sent to concentration camps, some 7,000 businesses had been looted, and 267 synagogues had been destroyed.
Although the event sent shock waves around the world, little changed regarding the acceptance of Jewish refugees from other countries. The United Kingdom, however, finally took action. The British government immediately agreed to take in a number of unaccompanied children aged 17 and under. They would be given a temporary visa, with the understanding that when they were safe they would return to their families. They would also not be a burden on the state, as each refugee child would require a sponsor before being allowed entry. Various organizations including the Refugee Children’s Movement (RCM) immediately began planning evacuations, while charities and private donations funded the rescue operation.
A nationwide call for foster homes (Jewish and non-Jewish) was launched and soon up to 500 offers came in. A network of organizers was quickly established in Germany and Austria, and they began compiling a list of the most at-risk Jewish children.
Allowed to bring only a small suitcase and a small amount of cash with them, the children were given an identity card and then piled onto trains bound for the nearest station. For many of them, this would be the last time they would see their parents. The first arrivals landed on British shores on 2 December 1938 at Harwich in Essex. The ship was carrying 196 children. Those who had already been allocated a foster home took the train to London to meet their new families, while others went to live in hostels across the country. Although this was an incredibly traumatic time for the children, as they found themselves in a foreign land without their parents, and many of them spoke little or no English, they were at least safe.
The Kindertransport continued until the start of World War II, with the last train leaving Berlin on September 1, 1939, the same day Germany invaded Poland. Smaller evacuations took place across the continent as the war raged.
Much of Kinderstransport’s success rested on the actions of individuals. One such person was Nicholas Winton (later Sir Nicholas), a young British banker from London. Born to German-Jewish parents who immigrated to Britain in the early 20th century, Nicholas became aware of what was unfolding on the continent during the 1930s. An ardent socialist, Nicholas was concerned about the dangers posed by the Nazi party and in the winter of 1938 he began to take action to help those affected by Hitler’s policies. Instead of going to Switzerland for a skiing holiday, Nicholas went to Prague just before Christmas 1938. He had been contacted by an old friend called Martin Blake, who was in Prague on behalf of the British Committee for Refugees from Czechoslovakia. . Blake had asked if Nicholas could come and help with the escalating humanitarian crisis unfolding in Czechoslovakia. “I have a very interesting assignment and I need your help,” Blake wrote to him. “Don’t bother taking your skis with you.”
Upon arrival, Nikola was shocked by what he saw. The situation facing the Jews was dire. Many of them were crammed into rapidly overcrowded refugee camps. The onset of winter brought other difficulties.
Believing he could make a difference, Nicholas immediately began to devise a plan to evacuate the Jewish children to safety in Britain. Using his contacts, Nicholas, along with Blake and other colleagues, set up a base of operations from their hotel room in Prague. Families wishing to send their children to Britain began registering names with Nicholas and his team.
Nicholas then had the potentially difficult task of arranging safe transport for the children across Nazi Germany and Europe while navigating mountains of red tape from the British authorities. The British government would only allow the most vulnerable children to enter, and each had to already have a foster family secured before departure. Nicholas returned to London and placed advertisements in newspapers asking for volunteer families to take the children. When these were secured, Nicholas and his colleagues began sending children on trains to Britain, the first of which left in March 1938. Transports were to continue throughout the summer, but were halted by the outbreak of war. In the end, Nicholas helped save the lives of 669 children, though he will always remember those he couldn’t save. “I don’t think about the kids who came, but the kids who should have come and didn’t,” Nicholas later said in an interview with the BBC.
The rescue efforts went relatively unknown for nearly half a century after the war ended.
It wasn’t until his wife found a book in the attic with the names of all the children Nicholas had managed to save that his story finally came to light. In 2003, Nikola was knighted by the Queen and in 2014 he received the highest honor of the Czech Republic, the Order of the White Lion. Nicholas died in 2015 at the age of 106.
