60 minutes rewind now an extraordinary story from the second world war the humanitarian story that
didn't come to light for decades it concerns a young londoner named nicholas winton who went
to prague and ended up saving the lives of 669 children mostly jews from almost certain death
as we first reported last april his story begins at the end of 1938 with europe on the brink of war
in germany violence against jews was escalating
and the infamous munich agreement paved the way for hitler's armies to march unopposed
into czechoslovakia in london nicholas winton had been following events and knew that refugees
fleeing the nazis were in dire straits he went to czechoslovakia to see if there was anything
he could do to help what's strange is that for almost 50 years he hardly told anyone about what
he'd accomplished and for 50 years the children knew nothing about who had saved them or how
we begin on october 1st 1938 nazi troops marched into the sudeikman the german-speaking region
of czechoslovakia prague the czech capital was flooded with desperate people trying to escape
a fortunate few were able to send their children abroad these parents mostly check jews sensed war
was coming and wanted to get their children out by chance a cameraman filmed a man holding a boy
a 29 year old londoner his name nicholas winton all i knew was that the people that i met
couldn't get out and they were looking of ways of at least getting their children out
nicholas winton is one of the few people who can bear witness to those days because
he's 105 years old he told us he went to prague to see if he might be able to save some people
but what made you think you could do it i work on the motto that if something's not impossible
there must be a way of doing it back in london winton was a successful stockbroker living
the good life with a passion for sports but he was deeply concerned about news
reports from czechoslovakia of german persecution i went out into the camps
where the people who had been displaced were put and it was winter and it was cold
immigration wasn't an option the world's doors were closed to the refugees conditions in the
camps were brutal for the 150 000 people trapped there especially for the children and no one
focused on them until nicholas winton but what did he do we went to jerusalem to yad vashem
israel's memorial to the victims of the holocaust and asked dr david silverclang a senior historian
there winton went set up shop in a hotel in the center of the old city in prague and began looking
into how can i organize getting some of these refugees particularly the children out of here
what kind of experience did he have to qualify him for this immense bureaucratic task
none winton set up a small organization with one aim to get as many kids out as fast as possible
people started coming to him in increasing numbers he didn't have time in the day to meet them all
he'd work till two in the morning get up early in the morning to meet the next people
as more and more coming saying take my child take my child by the time he returned to london he
had a list of hundreds of children and set out to convince british authorities to take him seriously
he did it by taking stationery from an established refugee organization adding children's section and
making himself chairman so that eventually they had to adopt me so in fact you managed to do what
you did through a little deception a little smoke and mirrors yes to a certain extent yes
it required quite a bit of ingenuity no it just acquired a printing press to get the
new paper printed the children's section operated from a tiny office in central london
winton's mother was in charge the staff were all volunteers during the day winton worked
as a stock broker evenings he wrestled with the british bureaucracy did you approach any other
countries to take some of the children yeah americans but the americans wouldn't take any
which was a pity we could have got a lot more out winton had written president roosevelt asking the
u.s to take in more children a minor official at the u.s embassy in london wrote back the us
was unable to help britain agreed to accept the children but only if winton found families willing
to take them in so he circulated the children's pictures to advertise them but even after a family
chose a child british authorities were slow in issuing travel documents so winston started having
them forged he also spread some money around took a bit of blackmail on my part you're indulging
in blackmail and forgery to get the children out i've never heard it put like that before
but you seem to be enjoying it it worked that's the main thing
the first 20 children left prague on march 14 1939.
the next day german troops occupied prague and the rest of czechoslovakia hitler rode
through the streets triumphant hugo maisel was 10 years old do you remember the germans coming
into czechoslovakia not only do i remember i personally saw hitler standing up in the car
and the children were expected to say hi hitler and so forth i remember as if yesterday it wasn't
long before violence against jews property confiscations and forced labor that began in
the sudetenland spread throughout czechoslovakia but the nazis allowed winton's trains to leave
in keeping with their policy to cleanse europe of jews hugo meisel's parents decided it was
time to put him and his brother on one of the trains i remember that they told us that we were
going to england maybe two or three months it would be a holiday for us and that they would
join us very shortly then you believed them absolutely were your parents emotional when
they said goodbye to you no i re i i i've asked myself that question many times how my parents
had the strength
i'm sorry
it never occurred to me that what they were saying to us was not true in other words
that they realized that they they would not be joining us within a short period of time
over the spring and summer of 1939 seven trains carried over 600 children through the heart of
nazi germany to holland where they took a ferry to the english coast from there they caught a
train to london an eighth train carrying 250 more was scheduled to leave prague on september 1st
but that's the day the war began they were all at the station even on the train waiting to go
and war was declared so the train never left never heard really what happened to all those children
but there's reason to suspect that not many of them survived i think that's true yes two
years after that last train the nazis began implementing the final solution
their plan to slaughter all the jews of europe czech jews were rounded up
and shipped to teresanstadt an old military garrison town about an hour north of prague
their first stop on the road to annihilation the story will continue after this
these tracks were the exit from teresa stott the only exit the tracks led east the trains were
called polish transports destination auschwitz some 90 000 people took that one-way ride among
them almost all the children sir nicholas wasn't able to get out in time their parents and the
parents of the children already in england after the war you went back to czechoslovakia was there
one instant where you accepted the fact that your parents were dead when films were being shown
of people walking in concentration camps
auschwitz and so forth there's so many shots being taken by the germans and and so forth
never stop looking
the name of every czech jew murdered in the holocaust is painted on the walls of
prague's pinka synagogue over seventy seven thousand three hundred names
including arnoshka and pavlo maisel hugo's parents
and nicholas winton during the war he volunteered for an ambulance unit for the red cross then
trained pilots for the royal air force he got married raised a family earned a comfortable
living for 50 years he told hardly anyone what he had done i didn't really keep it secret i
just didn't talk about it all this time you're in england then you go back to czechoslovakia
then you go to israel you still had no idea how your departure from czechoslovakia had been
organized absolutely no idea and you learned that by seeing it on television that's right
in 1988 the bbc learned about wynton's story and invited him to be part of a program he had no idea
that the people sitting around him were people he had saved can i ask is there
anyone in our audience tonight who owes their life to nicholas winton if so could you stand up please
mr winter would you like to turn around
on behalf of all of them thank you very much indeed
i suppose it was the most emotional moment of my life suddenly being confronted with all
these children who weren't by any means children anymore no they weren't and for the first time
they looked at you and knew that you were the reason that they were alive
true i wore this around my neck and this is the actual pass that we were given
to come to england and i'm another of the children that you saved
lady milliner grenfell baines describes winton as one of the most modest people she's ever met
why do you think he didn't say anything for 50 years i think it was in his nature he really
felt that he'd done all he could and having got those children settled he felt being there done
that my job's done i've got other things to do other things for the last 50 years winton's been
helping mentally handicapped people and building homes for the elderly we've just opened our
second old people's home and it's full and it's doing very well and there are plenty of old people
like me to go in but you're not there you're at home oh i'd hate to go into one of my own homes
don't print that
sir nicholas winton in 2003 winton was knighted and became sir nicholas winton in the czech
republic he's become a national hero he was celebrated in a documentary called nikki's family
but he isn't really comfortable with all the adulation i'm not interested in the past
i think there's too much emphasis nowadays on the past and what has happened and nobody is
concentrating on the present and the future in 1939 nicholas winton used a two-week vacation
to go to prague and ended up saving the lives of 669 children in the decades since of course
the children had children who then had children and so on and the numbers multiplied you want
to summarize it in one sentence a guy takes a two-week vacation and ends up with 15 000 children
yeah yes it's a pretty good story it's a great story they've got children and grandchildren and
great-grandchildren and none of them would be here if it hadn't been for cerneck that's right yeah
terrible responsibilities
you