History
Today marks the 101st birthday of Sir Nicholas Winton. In 1938, Winton began organizing the transport to Britain of orphaned, mostly-Jewish children in Czechoslovakia (most of whose parents died at Auschwitz). In total, 669 of "Winton's children" were saved from the Nazis.
Winton remained silent as to his noble acts. His wife learned of them from a scrapbook in the attic containing the names of his children, as well as their parents and adoptive families in England. The world learned of him when he was ostensibly invited onto a British television show as an audience member. His scapbook was then revealed, his actions explained, and the rest is really best viewed for yourself.
In 2007, Sir Nicholas Winton was awarded the Czech Republic's highest military decoration, The Cross Of The 1st Class, and at the ceremony the Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg supported the initiative of students and schoolchildren who have collected more than 32,000 signatures under a petition for Nicholas Winton being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the salvation of the children from Czechoslovakia.
The Nobel Prize recipient, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, has dedicated his life to ensuring that none of us forget what happened to the Jews. He wrote:
"In those times there was darkness everywhere. In heaven and on earth, all the gates of compassion seemed to have been closed. The killer killed and the Jews died and the outside world adopted an attitude either of complicity or of indifference. Only a few had the courage to care ..."
Happy birthday to you Sir.
I just wanted Nicholas Winton to know that my late husband LUDWIG HANS KOLBE was one of the children he saved on the Kindertransport from Prague in 1939. I have his original travel pass with me. he was aged 13.His son Richard Kolbe ( who lives in England) intends to travel with his daughter Christine this year to visit Treblinka where my husbands parents were murdered. Ludwigs brother was a survivor of a concentration camp and now his daughter Hana Sumcova who lives in Brno Czech Republic is doing work for the holocaust connected to Nicholas Winton. I have only recently been made aware that he was responsible for getting these children out - my husband always thought it was the Red Cross in Britain. He unfortunately passed away in 2002 otherwise I am sure that he would have been honoured to have communicated with Sir Winton.Please give him my best wishes and thanks for being such a remarkable man. I wish I could communicate with him. If possible may I have an email address?
Dear Mrs Kolbe,
I´m long time researching for fate of your late husband Ludwig H. Kolbe (*1924). I´m working on Kindertransport Airmen international project together with two other historians from Czech republic and UK.
Contact me, please directly via email:
[email protected]
with best wishes
Milan Hercut
Slovak republic (former Czechoslovakia)