He was a stockbroker by day and a child rescuer by night: Meet Nicholas Winton, the man who secretly saved 669 children

Nicholas Winton was working a London stockbroker in the year 1938 when a visit to Prague changed the course of his life forever. He saw there Jewish families and other refugees struggling to survive after Nazi expansion, which pushed him into organising a rescue effort that would eventually bring 669 children to Britain.

However for almost 50 years, Winton rarely ever spoke about what he had done for those children. Even his wife, Grete, did not know the full story until she discovered an old scrapbook in their attic in 1988.

Prague trip became a rescue mission

Winton, who was born in Hampstead in 1909 to Jewish parents, had planned to go skiing in December 1938. But his friend Martin Blake instead urged him to visit Prague and see the refugee crisis for himself, according to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.


There Winton saw people who had fled Nazi persecution living inside crowded camps. While working with people including Blake, Doreen Warriner and Trevor Chadwick, he became particularly concerned about the children.

The British government had already established the Kindertransport programme, which brought about 10,000 children from Germany and Austria to Britain. Winton pushed for Czech children to be included as well and Britain agreed, but each child needed a host family and a £50 guarantee.

Back in London, Winton continued to work at his stockbroking job while spending his evenings arranging the rescue. He searched for British families willing to take in children, raised money and dealt with the paperwork needed for their journeys.

Eight trains reached Britain

The first train carrying children left Prague on 14 March 1939 and German troops occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia the following day.

Between March and August, eight trains carrying a total of 669 children reached Britain. Most of the children were Jewish, while some were political refugees. Winton and his mother met children arriving at Liverpool Street Station before they were taken to their foster families.

This rescue mission was taking place against an increasingly dangerous backdrop. A ninth train, carrying 250 children, was due to leave Prague on 1 September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland that day and war was declared and the borders were closed. The children never made it to Britain.

The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust says Winton believed none of those 250 children was heard of again. The Guardian reported that most of the children on that train are believed to have died in concentration camps.

For many who escaped, Britain became their permanent home but their parents, however, often did not survive the Holocaust.

The story stayed mostly unknown

Winton did not regard his actions as something extraordinary and did not seek public attention for them. The Guardian reported that he had not spoken about his role in the rescue for nearly 50 years.

That changed when Grete found the scrapbook in the couple's attic. It contained photographs, letters and records of the children Winton had helped. She passed it to Holocaust researcher Elisabeth Maxwell, and the story eventually reached the BBC programme That's Life!.

In 1988, Winton appeared on the programme, expecting that information about the children might help them trace their families. Instead, he was reunited with some of those he had helped, including Vera Gissing.

During another episode, Esther Rantzen asked the audience whether anyone there owed their life to Winton. More than two dozen people stood up.

For many of the rescued children, it was the first time they had learned who had arranged their escape.

'Winton's children' remembered him

The reunion created a long lasting connection between Winton and many of the people he had helped. They became known as “Winton's children”, and several remained close to him until his death in 2015 at the age of 106.

Winton was eventually recognised publicly for his humanitarian work. He was knighted in 2003, while the Czech Republic awarded him the Order of the White Lion. A statue of him with two children stands at Prague's main railway station.

His story has since been told in books, documentaries and the film One Life, starring Anthony Hopkins.