The Winton trains were special transports organized during the Second World War by Sir Nicholas Winton, a British humanitarian hero. Nicholas Winton was a British citizen who worked in Prague and he helped organize a rescue operation for hundreds of mostly Jewish children from the then protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. This issue is currently being reminded, for example, of the Golden Swan series.
Hatred of the Jews grew
The first train left on March 15, 1939, the last in August 1939. Even then, hostility towards the Jews was evident, although it was nowhere near what was to come. Nicholas Winton and his associates organized special trains that transported children from Prague to Great Britain, where they were placed in adoptive families or in boarding schools. This operation was carried out in secret and was vital to save the children from Nazi persecution.
A group of brave people saved the life of, for example, cousin Madeleine Albright or director Karl Reisz. The largest transport was supposed to leave at the beginning of September 1939, but it did not reach the destination station. Most of the small passengers perished, the Nazis intervened. Winton called it the saddest moment of his life.
There is no mention of volunteers
After the war, he received many awards. Václav Havel awarded him the Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Miloš Zeman also awarded him. Winton, although he lived to be 106 years old, he spoke in such a way that he should not have lived that long – it just gave others room to exaggerate his actions.
But if you were looking for the names of the volunteers who risked their lives and helped transport hundreds of children to English families, you would not be successful. It was supposed to be a small group, without which Winton would not have been able to do what the whole world is still talking about. But others fell into oblivion.
Source: editors, Czech television, echo24.cz, iDNES.cz
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