Created by Juwan Acevedo, Kyle Wang, Patch Remington
A glimmer of hope shining bright in the middle of enveloping darkness
During the Holocaust, British stockbroker and humanitarian Sir Nicholas George Winton (19 May 1909 – 1 July 2015) assisted in saving Jewish children who were in danger of being killed by Nazi Germany. On the brink of World War II, Winton helped save 669 children from Czechoslovakia. Most of them were Jewish. After returning to Britain, he worked to fulfill the legal obligations of bringing the children to the country and finding homes and sponsors for them. The Czech Kindertransport was the name given to this operation later on (German for ‘children’s transport’).
One Man’s Differences
In the tumultuous years preceding World War II, Europe was engulfed by political instability and rising anti-Semitism. Amidst this turmoil, Sir Nicholas Winton emerged as a beacon of hope and compassion.
Born Nicholas George Wertheim on May 19, 1909, he was the eldest child of Rudolf and Barbara Wertheim. He was baptized as a Christian within the Anglican Church although his parents had German-Jewish heritage. The family also changed their surname to Winton so that it sounded more British.
Nicholas grew up in West Hampstead, London and attended the Stowe School in Buckingham, where he learned the values of courage, perseverance, tenacity, and humility in the face of adversity.
Following his education, Winton pursued a career in international banking, working in London, Berlin, and Paris. Afterward, he decided to settle down and returned to England in 1931 to pursue a career as a stockbroker.
During the same time, Europe was being gripped by the ominous presence of Nazi aggression and the escalating persecution of minority populations in the years prior to WW2.
Nazi aggression started with Czechoslovakia. As part of a peace negotiation with Great Britain, the Nazis annexed the Sudetenland in 1938, a region of Czechoslovakia that bordered Germany. Jewish families living in the area found themselves underneath a government that systematically discriminated against them through harassment and violence.
This resulted in 90% of the Jews in the region fleeing from it due to the risk of persecution. Here is Nicholas Winton himself on how he helps those without any connection in a safe place.
Faced with the horrors of Nazi persecution, thousands of Jewish families sought refuge in neighboring regions, their lives upended by the relentless march of fascism.
At the age of 29, Winton was urged to visit Prague to witness firsthand the refugee crisis unfolding in the wake of the Nazi Annexation of Sudetenland in 1938. He felt the need to take decisive action and help the plight of these refugees after seeing their desperation.
The brutal events of Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938, further intensified the situation’s urgency, prompting Winton to take action. Inspired by the German and Austrian Kindertransports, which transported Jewish children from Germany and Austria to safety in Great Britain, Winton resolved to replicate a similar rescue effort in Czechoslovakia.
With determination and compassion, Winton moved quickly to organize a rescue operation for Czech children facing persecution and imminent danger. Collaborating with a small team of volunteers, including Trevor Chadwick and Doreen Warriner, Winton embarked on a mission to save as many lives as possible.
In a race against time, Winton and his dedicated team worked tirelessly to orchestrate the evacuation of hundreds of children from Czechoslovakia to safety in Great Britain. Kristallnacht forced Britain to relax immigration laws at the time because of the influx of refugees and Winton would use trains to transport these children to the UK. It was similar to the Kindertransport but instead of transporting children from Germany and Austria they would be transporting children from Czechoslovakia.
Their efforts would forever change the lives of those they sought to rescue.
Bibliography & Resources
- “Sir Nicholas Winton” Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, www.hmd.org.uk/resource/sir-nicholas-winton.
- “Sir Nicholas Winton – Maidenhead Heritage Centre.” Maidenhead Heritage Centre, maidenheadheritage.org.uk/hall-of-fame-2/sir-nicholas-winton.
- IWitness | IWitness – Education Through Genocide Testimony. iwitness.usc.edu/testimony/52908?search=Nicholas%20Winton&category=testimonies&from=%2Fsearch.
- Nicholas Winton and the Rescue of Children From Czechoslovakia, 1938–1939. encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nicholas-winton-and-the-rescue-of-children-from-czechoslovakia-1938-1939.
- “Nicholas Winton.” The National Holocaust Centre and Museum, www.holocaust.org.uk/nicholas-winton.
- “NICHOLAS WINTON AND THE RESCUE OF CHILDREN FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA, 1938–1939” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2020, encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nicholas-winton-and-the-rescue-of-children-from-czechoslovakia-1938-1939.
Artifact Statement
Our Holocaust artifact is called, “Winton’s Doves,” a memorial dedicated to humanitarian and hero Sir Nicholas Winton, who saved hundreds of children from the horrors of the Holocaust through transports to the UK. Our goal was to inspire hope in viewers and celebrate the heroes who stood up and took action against the suffering inflicted by the Nazis. Winton changed the course of many Czech children’s lives that would have otherwise been lost to the refugee camps or ended by the Nazis, providing a glimmer of hope and opportunity in the midst of a vast ocean of darkness.
We faced a tough decision early on in the planning process. We originally were going to do a literal interpretation of the train transports, but after discussing with our teacher we figured out that a symbolism heavy interpretation would encapsulate our meaning further. Furthermore, we wanted the artifact to appear optimistic. This is especially important because we were aiming for “hope” as a theme. Specifically, we wanted to spread awareness about him to motivate others to be upstanders as well.
The main material we worked with was 3D printed objects, we printed out both trees, the doves, the eagle and the robin. Afterwards we painted each object to its intended color. 3D printing was a major asset for our group, because we had lots of small, detailed objects that would be hard to make otherwise. The other materials we used were, model clay, for both nests, thin plywood, for the base and quote, and a piece of turf, covering the ground on the left side. One major challenge we faced was finding a way to 3D print the doves. We tried twice to 3D print the doves, but both times we kept accidentally breaking their wings, while trying to remove the necessary attached supports. The way we worked around this was by printing each half separately, so that neither side had to have supports. Afterwards we hot glued the pieces together.
The split wooden background emphasizes the divide between Nazi cruelty and Winton’s hospitality with one side blackened and desolate and the other one lush and bountiful. Each tree symbolizes the individual countries. The blackened tree is Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia while the lush tree is Great Britain. The brown bird is an eagle, symbolizing the aggressive Nazi regime. The red bird is a robin, symbolizing the humility and friendliness of Winton. The quote from Winton himself shows how he is an upstander in nature, as he genuinely saw the urgency of helping the children, “who hadn’t got anywhere to go or who hadn’t got people to look after the children.” Winton truly wanted to aid people who had none. The nine doves symbolize the nine transports that occurred. Doves symbolize freedom and opportunity, which is what the transports provided to the children. They were moving from the bare tree to the green tree similar to how they were fleeing the conditions of Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia to the opportunity filled land of Great Britain. The last dove, symbolizing the last transport, is being eaten by the Nazi eagle because the last transport never left. The day Germany invaded Poland (the site of the majority of the transports after the invasion of Czechoslovakia), the transport of 250 children was thwarted.
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