Humble hero who saved hundreds of children from Nazis

SIR Nicholas Winton never liked being called a hero, but to the hundreds of children whose lives he saved there is no better word.

- LOUISE LAZELL

During the nine months leading up to the Second World War, the London stockbroker, known as Nicky, organised the rescue of 669 children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia.

In a race against time before the borders closed, Sir Nicholas and a handful of volunteers arranged train travel to England, visas, funding and foster homes to save the children, who were mainly Jewish, from the Nazis.

The story of his remarkable feat is coming to the big screen in the film One Life, featuring Anthony Hopkins as the older Nicky, Helena and Bonham Carter.

Sir Nicholas's incredible efforts came to light 50 years later in an article in the Sunday Mirror, which led to his being reunited with many of the children he saved on BBC1's That's Life! in 1988.

Now, 85 years since the Czech Kindertransport rescues, Sir Nicholas's son Nick Winton, 71, has had his own emotional meeting with three Kinder: Lord Alf Dubs, 90, Vera Schaufeld, 93, and Alexandra Greensted, 91.

Nick says: "When you think about their start in life, being sent off to a country they may never have heard of, being brought up by strangers they had never met and speaking a language they didn't understand.... it's lovely to think they have had a full life because [of] my dad and the volunteers." For Vera, who was nine when she came to England, keeping a connection with the man who saved her means everything.

None of her family survived the war - her grandmother died of starvation in camp-ghetto Theresienstadt and her parents died in SS camp Trawniki.

She says: "I owe my life to Nicky because if I had stayed I wouldn't be alive today. It means so much to still be connected to his son. I feel like I'm part of their family, in a way."

Former Labour MP Lord Dubs became close friends with Sir Nicholas after discovering via That's Life! he was the man behind his Kindertransport from Prague aged six.