Nicholas Winton Does What He Can, and Loves His Neighbor
Nicholas Winton As A Young Man
God gave us free will to love each other, a He would have it, and to harm each other as Satan would have it. And then He sent His Son to show us that love is the true and good way. But in every generation of mankind both paths have been travelled, producing both monsters and heroes. Will we dedicate our life to the one path, or the other? Because in every day and age...even right now...there are opportunities to oppose evil and to prove yourself a willing servant of Christ amidst the evils and challenges of your day and times. Be brave. God is with those who seek to bravely do what is right.
It was long after World War II when U.K. citizen Nicholas Winton was invited onto a 1988 British T.V. show to discuss an involvement he had in Czechoslovakia in 1939. And so, there he was, an older gray haired man in glasses sitting in the audience on the talk show he had been invited to. It was not a situation that he was accustomed to. He had taken some risks 50 years ago, it turned out, to help over 900 Jewish children from Czechoslovakia escape through Germany and the Netherlands and across the English Channel to Britain just as World War II was about to be declared. And that is not stretching the truth to make it sound dramatic.
The last train load of children were unable to leave the train station because the train's departure was held up due to the beginning of the war. Were the children really in that much danger? Yes. Of those 200 plus children on that last train that didn't get to depart...only two are reported to have survived the war. They were Jewish children, and this was a genocide against Jews. But...over 900 Jewish children were whisked out of Czechoslovakia just before that via arrangements made by Nicholas Winton and his mother and a few other volunteers, with the German government's allowance and the Netherlands and British government's assistance and permission. Winton's mother even joined into the effort.
The German Nazi government officials in Prague saw it as getting rid of Jews, and so they curiously did not interfere due to there not being an official state of war yet anyway. None the less, there were Jewish refugee camps set up outside of Prague, tent cities where the displaced Jewish families froze in the winter weather waiting to see what their fate would be. When they heard what Winton was doing they brought their children into the city, into Prague, where Nicholas had set up a temporary office in a hotel lobby. And they each urged him to make a way for their children to leave for a time...to be out of danger. They had photos taken of their children so that British families or couples could basically select children. They did not know, but may have feared, that it would be their last good bye.
The Americans had been asked to help, but some official in the Roosevelt administration had written back to say they were unable to help. The Netherlands allowed the children to pass through, and they also brought some foods aboard at the various train stops. And the British government was not all that enthusiastic, but allowed the child refugees to come over from the Netherlands on ships so long as British host families, willing to commit in writing, had already been arranged for each child. Nicholas Winton actually forged paperwork aimed at making it appear that he was affiliated with an established and respected British charity, and through that means reached the British officials whose permission was needed.
But back to the 1988 T.V. show! You know how T.V. shows are...they know that their audiences love a tear jerker surprise from time to time. And so the elegant host of the show prompted the cameras to turn to him there in the audience as she told his story of saving the Jewish children by arranging them transport to willing volunteer host families in Britain for what was supposed to be a few months until their parents could come. Only the war unfortunately started, and most of their parents were disposed of, killed, in concentration camps. Many of the children were raised to adulthood by their British host families.
Nicholas held very still there in the audience as she spoke. He was a shy man really. He had been active during the war, working with the Royal Air Force. He had married after the war and it turns out that his own wife had not known his secret until many years into their marriage when she was examining the contents of a long ignored box in their attic. He had kept it secret for nearly 50 years. She came upon a scrap book of his child transport activities - the operation had been named Kinder Transport way back when it occurred. There was a list of children's names. She read carefully and asked questions and eventually put it all together: her husband was one of a small group responsible for saving a great many lives but yet he had never even mentioned it to her. She was a proud wife! She made sure that the world found out what he had done.
So, there he sat in the audience years later as an old man, long after his rescue efforts which had in truth only amounted to a few weeks of his life, and the elegant British woman hosting the show suddenly broke the news to the old man. Did he know the woman seated beside him? He looked over, peering through his glasses as a woman of young middle age next to him leaned over and kissed his cheek, clearly emotional. She was one of them, he was told...one of the rescued children. Surprised, he stayed pretty reserved as the British of that day were often inclined to be, though he did have to reach in and wipe some tears behind his glasses as he smiled a little and she smiled a lot. She had never known whose efforts had led to her life being spared until shortly before that show, and it was a very big moment for her. This man really did mean something special to her, and she intended that he should know it!
Winton in front right, not realizing yet! Around him are some of those who survived through his actions. Good ambush!!
But then the host revealed a further surprise. She asked if anyone else in the audience shared anything with this woman, and asked them to please stand up. His whole section of the audience stood up. They were all children, now grown to middle age, who had been saved by his efforts and arrangements. They had all recently learned who their benefactor was, and the T.V. show directors had reached out to some of them to give them an opportunity to ambush, meet and thank Nicholas Winton. And so, there it was, a golden T.V. moment as Nicholas Winton stood up, turned around and looked at the numerous audience members beside and behind him who were gathered from various parts of the U.K. to express their thanks. And they were only so many dozen from among hundreds scattered around Britain, and returned to Czechoslovakia and in other nations too, most likely.
It was a well done moment, and it might make you feel good inside to watch it. You can go to YouTube and search it up very easily using the Nicholas Winton name. He lived much of his life as a stock broker, but stayed involved in charity projects. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth when his story came out. He even lived to be past 106 years old, a blessed old age.
Winton As An Older Gentleman, Recognized By the Queen
But also let's remember that we will all one day be faced with some sort of judgement where we will be faced with all to whom we had ever done good, and all to whom we have ever done wrong and harm. We will be known as we genuinely are, sparkles and warts. We will not be able to hide from our sins, and even if our good deeds are many, good deeds alone, even un-besmirched, cannot raise us to the level of purity and goodness demanded by Heaven. We love our neighbor because it is a wonderful thing and as a chance to show God our gratitude for sending His willing Son Jesus to teach us and then die a very brutal and unfair death for us. Jesus will grant us the covering of His righteousness if we are attached to Him here on Earth. Without that, we cannot attain salvation. Jesus said so, and we know He does not lie.
Jesus is the only path, and it is a narrow path requiring discipline and obedience and effort on our part, though paradoxically no amount of our effort can build a sinner's bridge to salvation. The effort, the obedience, the discipline is our allowed way to say thank you and to say that we are a genuine follower of Christ, not a poser, not a user or advantage taker of God's only Son, painfully given to us because no other price was sufficient to atone for our dark and plentiful sins. But, wouldn't you like to look around on judgement day and see a great many whom you have helped and loved and aided, and only a few if any to him you owe an apology...if you even could apologize at that point? These are the days, the days in which we can look about for a neighbor to show love to. Don't miss out. Seize the opportunities while they exist. I myself have missed so many!