Well Done!

Last week a gentleman passed on – he was 106 years old.  His name was Nicholas Winton…..Sir Nicholas Winton.

Sir Nicholas George Winton MBE (born Nicholas George Wertheim; 19 May 1909 – 1 July 2015) was a British humanitarian who organized the rescue of 669 children, most of them Jewish, from Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War in an operation later known as the Czech Kindertransport (German for children transport). Winton found homes for the children and arranged for their safe passage to Britain.    After the war, he did not discuss his efforts with anyone; his wife found out what he had done only after she discovered a scrapbook in their attic in 1988, detailing the children’s parents and the families that took them in.  The British press dubbed him the “British Schindler”.   

Sir Nicholas was born in London on 19 May, 1909.  His parents were German Jews who had moved to London two years earlier. The family name was Wertheim, but they changed it to Winton in an effort at integration.  They also converted to Christianity, and Winton was baptised.  What times these were!

Certainly we all know the atrocities caused by the Nazi regime and how grateful we are for the work of people like Sir Nicholas.  Lives were spared because of his heart and compassion.

Yes, we say, “Well done, Sir Nicholas.  We herald you.”