FOR half a century Sir Nicholas Winton had been tormented by memories of the last train due to carry Jewish children out of Nazi-occupied Europe.
Even though the British stockbroker had managed to save 669 youngsters from Hitler’s gas chambers, he had long remembered the 250 others forced to leave their railway carriages in Czech capital Prague at the outbreak of World War Two in 1939.
Sir Anthony Hopkins plays Brit hero Sir Nicholas Winton in upcoming film One Life, which tells the story of him saving 669 Jewish children from the NazisAlamy
The stockbroker helped young refugees escape on the Kindertransport on the eve of the Second World WarGetty
Broadcaster Dame Esther Rantzen arranged for him to sit in front of an audience of people he helped save for BBC1 show That’s Life! in 1988Rex Features
Nicholas had arranged for them all to be cared for by families in Britain, but the final group heading here on what became known as the kindertransport — or “children’s transport” in German — were stopped by the Nazis when the borders were closed.
It wasn’t until nearly 50 years later, after broadcaster Dame Esther Rantzen heard about his endeavours, that modest Nicholas finally realised how life-changing his efforts had been.
In 1988 she arranged for him to sit in the front row of the audience for an episode of her BBC1 show That’s Life!.
Unknown to him, most of the people sitting around him in the studio had got out of wartime Germany on one of his kindertransports.
Now the tearful moment when those holocaust survivors stood up to thank Nicholas has been immortalised in a new movie, One Life.
Tonight its European premiere at the London Film Festival was particularly poignant in the wake of Saturday’s horrific attacks on Israel.
Hamas terrorists claim to have taken 130 hostages, thought to include 84-year-old former social worker Ditza Heiman — widow of Zvi Shdaimah, who came to Britain by kindertransport.
‘He was the person who saved my life’
In the film, Sir Anthony Hopkins plays the older version of Sir Nicholas, who died in 2015 aged 106, while Johnny Flynn plays the younger, wartime version.
Dame Esther told The Sun: “When I congratulated him on his wonderful achievement in saving so many children, his reply was, ‘Not enough’.
In spite of heroically saving so many children, Sir Nicholas said what he had done was ‘not enough’Rex Features
Johnny Flynn plays a younger Nicholas Winton in the See-Saw/BBC Films productionAlamy
Nicholas helped defenceless youth escape Czechoslovakia after Hitler’s annexation of the eastern areas of the countryAlamy
“He sounded deeply distressed. Nicky explained that he and his team had found families in the UK to take 250 more children, that they had all been given their visas and put on a train in Prague station, but that day war had been declared and the Germans had closed the borders.
“So at the last moment all those children had to be taken off the train.
“Hearing his distress, I was determined to find a way to bring home to him what a wonderful achievement it had been to save so many lives that would otherwise have been lost.”
In 1938 Nicholas had been a carefree 29-year-old stockbroker heading for a skiing holiday in Switzerland when a friend asked for his help.
They told him how the lives of Jewish families were in danger in Czechoslovakia following its partial annexation by Hitler.
Kindertransports were being arranged by various organisations in Germany, Austria and Poland.
The British Government had offered to let in Jewish children if homes had been found for them.
But there was no coordinated effort to rescue those in Czechoslovakia.
So Nicholas, whose parents were German-born Jews, set to work.
His mother Barbara helped him to find prospective homes in Britain, while Nicholas dealt with the delicate politics of moving Jewish children through Nazi Germany.
For nine months he coordinated the effort with volunteers, who helped to get the children on to seven trains.
One of the lucky escapees was Alf Dubs, now a 90-year-old Labour peer, who said of Nicholas: “The great thing about him is that he saw what was happening in Prague in the autumn of ’38 and unlike people who say, ‘This is awful’ and walk away, he said, ‘This is awful’ and stayed to do something.
“He battled with the British Government to get permits, and with the Nazis who were suspicious of him.
“I was six years old, I was one of the youngest. I remember my mum took me to the station in Prague to see me off and there were soldiers with swastikas on their arms standing in the background, lots of anxious parents saying goodbye to their kids, maybe for the last time.
Labour peer Lord Dubs recalls how he got out of the country on one of the trainsGetty
Many other children never saw their parents again after being waved off in PragueAlamy
“The train left Prague, crossed Germany and when we got to the Dutch border the older ones cheered because they were out of reach of the Nazis.”
Alf’s Jewish father Hubert had fled to Britain earlier, and his non-Jewish mother later got out too, but many other relatives died in the Holocaust.
Other children never saw their parents again after being waved off in Prague.
That was the terrible fate for Eva Werner, whose Catholic parents ended up in Auschwitz concentration camp.
The Nazi hatred for Jews was so intense that they were rounded up just because of a Jewish heritage.
Londoner Eva, 98, who was 14 when she got on the train, said: “It was awful, parting. I will never forget the look in my mother’s eyes. It was an awful thing to live through.”
It is believed that of the 250 children who were denied their escape on that final kindertransport train, only two survived the war.
Nicholas spoke to no one about his secret operation — not even his wife Grete.
It was only when she came across boxes in their loft in Maidenhead,
Berks, containing details of the children he had saved that the truth finally emerged.
For Esther’s TV tribute she asked one of her researchers to track down as many of the people listed as possible and invited them to the studio.
Nicholas thought he was there just to talk about the kindertransport and did not know they were in the audience.
For Esther, the moment when the survivors thanked Nicholas for saving their lives was too much to bear.
She said: “When the ladies took his hand and thanked Nicky for their lives I had to stop, get off my chair and ask the team to stop the recording while I left the set and wiped away my tears.
“Each time I watch that clip, I find myself in tears again.”
The episode had a huge impact on those Holocaust survivors. Lord Dubs, who was watching at home, suddenly found out who was responsible for rescuing him from humanity’s darkest hour.
He said: “I regarded him as the person who saved my life.”
And Eva suddenly felt able to open up to her daughter about the horrors of the Holocaust for the first time.
Nicholas was certainly not the only British person to go above and beyond to evacuate the vulnerable.
Altogether nearly 10,000 Jewish children made it out on trains organised by various organisations.
Dame Stephanie Shirley thinks Sir Nicholas was set apart by how much his small-scale operation achievedArthur Edwards – News Group Newspapers Ltd
She arrived on one train from Vienna aged five thanks to Christian and Jewish activistsCollect
But Dame Stephanie Shirley, who arrived on a train from Vienna aged five, thanks to Christian and Jewish activists, thinks that what sets Nicholas apart is how much his small-scale operation achieved.
Now 90, she said: “What was remarkable about Nicky Winton was that it was just him and his mother and a couple of volunteers.
“It was very amateur and they did it on their own.”
It is believed that today fewer than 100 of the 10,000 kindertransport children who came to Britain are still alive.
But the story will live on in younger generations, who also would not be here without Nicholas.
Karen Goodman’s mum Margit, who died four years ago, was 17 when she got on a Winton train out of Prague in June 1939.
The 72-year-old social worker from London said: “She came alone and her family were rounded up and murdered.
“She knew what was likely to happen to her parents when she stepped on the train. It had a lifelong impact on my mum.
“And without Nicholas I wouldn’t be here, nor would my mum’s four great grandchildren.”
Nicholas was knighted by the Queen in 2003 for services to humanity.
In September 2009 the 70th anniversary of the Czech children’s evacuation was commemorated by sending kindertransport survivors and their descendants on a steam train from Prague to London.
The then 100-year-old Nicholas was there to greet them at Liverpool Street station.
But he remained a reluctant hero. Only after his death in 2015 was the Nicholas Winton Memorial Trust set up to document his work. It is run by family members.
The new film, which also stars Jonathan Pryce and Helena Bonham Carter, is out on January 5 next year.
Its title echoes an old Jewish saying: “Anyone who saves one life is as if he saved an entire world.”
Sir Nicholas remained a reluctant hero up to his death in 2015, when he was aged 106Camera Press
Helena Bonham Carter also stars in the film, which reaches cinemas on January 5 next yearPlanet Photos Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
