Nicholas

Sir Nicholas Winton

When did you first hear about the plight of children in Germany?

Well, that question will take me about half an hour to answer. First of all one has to know what was going on in Germany and I was one of the people through my family and friends who knew what was going on in Germany. All my friends were left wing politicians and all my family were German so I was in a very privileged position better than all the politicians to know what was happening in Germany.

What did you see? What was happening?

Well, we had relatives who were musicians also relatives who were doctor’s . They all left their positions. They could not carry on working. There were lots of them in physical danger and we brought them over to this country, my family. So we knew a lot more than the politicians of that time about what was happening.

How did you get involved in Czechoslovakia with the children?

I did not get so much involved in Czechoslovakia but the political friends of mine were involved in Czechoslovakia and they went over to Czechoslovakia on a fact finding mission and I was very friendly with a person doing that and I went along with him and found out what was happening in Germany.

Could more children have been rescued in Czechoslovakia? 669 came over on the trains to England. But could more have been rescued?

Well all those that were rescued, were those in danger. There were certainly more than that number in danger and the only way they could be rescued is if a foreign country would take them. And at that time if you wanted to emigrate from Germany to England you had to have a family that would guarantee to look after you. And our government agreed to take children in bulk even if they had not guarantee as long as my society that I had organised would guarantee to find them a place to live.

So the number of children you wanted to take, depended on the number of guarantors and foster parents?

Absolutely.

What about America. Did you try asking America for help?

Yes, I got letters from the American government saying they could not help.

Why was the last train not able to leave Prague on the 1^st September?

Because that was the day war started. The train was full of children. I had done all the work in finding families to live. The people who were helping me in Czechoslovakia had done all the work in getting all the children organised and to the station and then suddenly in one moment it was all cancelled.

It would have been our biggest transport.

What happened to the children?

Most of them perished.

Were there people waiting for these children at Liverpool Street Station?

There would have been till we cancelled it. We cancelled as many of this as we could?

Why is it that you did not talk about this for fifty years? You said very little about it?

Well there was a war on and there were other things to talk about.

Did you think what you did 75 years ago would have such an impact on the Children you rescued?

I did not think in advance. I only did the job that was there to be done at that time. I did not think about the future. The future was of no interest really.

My main regret is the last train never left.

If you have a motto in life what is it?

It’s a scout’s motto. “Be prepared, do your best and get prepared for the worst.