R2OK!

becky sharp · Joined: 01 Dec 2008 Posts: 6851

....for saving children from Nazis

News worth reporting in it's own right but what caught my ear when listening to this just now, on the radio, is that this remarkable man is 105. I hope he enjoys many more happy birthdays.

A British man who saved 669 children, most of them Jews, from the Nazis is to receive the Czech Republic's highest state honour.

Sir Nicholas Winton was 29 when he arranged trains to take the children out of occupied Czechoslovakia and for foster families to meet them in London.

Now 105, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he felt proud that he had "made a difference to a lot of people".

He will receive the Order of the White Lion at a ceremony in Prague later
The remarkable mission of the man dubbed the "British Schindler" only came to light in the late 1980s.

His involvement in the rescue began in 1938 after the Nazi occupation of the disputed territory of the Sudetenland.

Having visited refugee camps outside Prague, he decided to help children secure British permits in the same way children from other countries had been rescued by "kindertransports".

At the time he was a stockbroker in London and being from a German Jewish family he said he was well aware of the urgency of the situation.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29798434

ruddlescat · Joined: 16 Sep 2010 Posts: 18010 Location: Near Chester

A feature about it on Channel 4 News right now - repeated on plus one at eight if anyone is interested Smile

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Are you ready for a Ruddles?

becky sharp · Joined: 01 Dec 2008 Posts: 6851

A statue of him at Maidenhead train station