Nicholas Winton

Nicholas Winton was a British humanitarian who organized the rescue of 669 children, mostly Jewish, from Czechoslovakia to Britain in 1939.

Connect

Kindertransport: A series of 1938–1940 operations that brought nearly 10,000 mostly Jewish children from Nazi-controlled Europe to Britain. Winton’s Prague rescue operation became one part of Britain’s wider child-evacuation effort.
Munich Agreement: The 1938 agreement allowing Nazi Germany to annex the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. Its aftermath intensified fears for refugees and children in Prague.
Doreen Warriner: A British economist and aid worker who assisted refugees in Prague in 1938 and 1939. Warriner’s refugee work in Prague helped connect Winton with the rescue effort.
Winton children: The 669 children whose departure from Czechoslovakia to Britain Nicholas Winton helped organize in 1939. Their survival and later lives are the direct human outcome of the operation.
Czech Kindertransport: The 1939 rescue operation that brought children from Czechoslovakia to Britain, organized in part by Nicholas Winton. This is the specific transport effort most closely associated with Winton.
Prague: The capital and largest city of the Czech Republic, located in Bohemia. Winton worked in Prague to identify children and organize their departure.
German occupation of Czechoslovakia: Nazi Germany’s occupation of the Czech lands beginning in March 1939. The occupation made escape increasingly urgent and closed the rescue window.
Trevor Chadwick: A British teacher and aid worker who helped arrange children’s departures from Prague in 1939. Chadwick handled crucial work in Prague while Winton coordinated from Britain.
Nicky's Family: A British television program in 1988 that reunited Nicholas Winton with people he had helped rescue. The broadcast transformed a largely private record into a widely known story.
The last Winton train: A planned 1939 Kindertransport train from Prague whose passengers did not escape after Germany invaded Poland. Its cancellation reveals how quickly the rescue route closed.