NICHOLAS WINTON: THE POWER OF GOOD

Director: Matej Minác
Release Date: 2002
Runtime: 64 minutes
Genre: Documentary
Country: Czech Republic / Slovakia
Language: English
Website: www.powerofgood.net

Synopsis:
This documentary film tells the story of one of the greatest humantarians of our time. Nicholas Winton, together with his team (his mother, a secretary, and other concerned individuals) managed to save 669 endangered children, most of them Jewish, from almost certain death at the hands of the Nazis and Nazi collaborators. Convinced that war was imminent, Winton organized eight rescue missions in 1939 that took children from Prague, the capital of the former Czechoslovakia and the city soon to be occupied by the Nazis, to Great Britain. There they were placed with families, stayed in hostels, were placed on farms, or were even placed in boarding schools (very few went to boarding schools). The final train, carrying 250 children, was scheduled to leave on September 1, 1939, but never did. Hitler's troops invaded Poland that same day and the borders were closed. Two days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany. None of the children who were to have been on that final train were ever seen again.

For almost 50 years, Winton told no one about his rescue efforts. In late 1987, Winton's wife, Grete, discovered papers in their attic related to his prewar activities. It was only then that the remarkable story emerged about the rescue operation that saved 669 lives. The Wintons shared their story with Dr. Elisabeth Maxwell, a Holocaust scholar and the wife of the British newspaper magnate, the late Robert Maxwell. In February 1988, Dr. Maxwell had Winton's story published in the Sunday Mirror, which was featured that same night on the BBC program, That's Life. As a result, Winton was reunited with many of the "children" he saved.