The Touching Moment When Nicholas Winton (RIP) Met the Children He Saved During the Holocaust

Note: This post was orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished on July 27, 2014. Mr. Win­ton sad­ly passed away today (7/1/2015). He was 106 years old. Read his obit­u­ary, which doc­u­ments his amaz­ing deeds, here.

Pro­cras­ti­na­tors take note.

Some teens of my acquain­tance have been agi­tat­ing for a meet­ing with a Holo­caust sur­vivor. These encoun­ters, com­mon enough in my child­hood, are grow­ing less so as those with first­hand knowl­edge enter their gold­en years. Bear in mind that Eva Lavi, the youngest per­son named on Oskar Schindler’s List, is now 76.

Sir Nicholas Win­ton is def­i­nite­ly an inspir­ing fig­ure, and not just for his remark­able longevi­ty. From late 1938 until the start of the war, he man­aged to res­cue 669 Czech children—most of them Jews.

Win­ton made no pub­lic men­tion of his hero­ics, until 1988, when the BBC obtained his res­cue scrap­book and used it to coor­di­nate a mas­sive live on-air sur­prise dur­ing the pro­gram That’s Life (see above).

I plan on using the 60 Min­utes episode below to intro­duce my teen friends—most of whom stout­ly declare they’d have hid­den Anne Frank with­out a sec­ond thought—to a man whose actions speak loud­er than words.

via Holy Kaw

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Mem­o­ry of the Camps (1985): The Holo­caust Doc­u­men­tary that Trau­ma­tized Alfred Hitch­cock, and Remained Unseen for 40 Years

Alice Herz-Som­mer, the Old­est Holo­caust Sur­vivor (Thanks to the Pow­er of Music), Dies at 110

Rudolf Braz­da, Last Man to Wear the Pink Tri­an­gle Dur­ing the Holo­caust, Tells His Sto­ry

Anne Frank: The Only Exist­ing Video Now Online

Ayun Hal­l­i­day is an author, home­school­er, and Chief Pri­ma­tol­o­gist of the East Vil­lage Inky zine. Fol­low her @AyunHalliday