Nicholas Winton: He Saved 669 Children… Then Kept Quiet for Almost 50 Years

In 1988, an old man sat in the front row of a TV show.

He thought he had only come to watch.

Little did he know that the people around him owed him their lives.

This is the story of Nicholas Winton.

Welcome to brightlivesenglish.com, where we teach real English using real-life stories.

Evacuate. To evacuate people means to move them from a dangerous place to a safe one.

He decided to help evacuate as many children as he could.

Bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is a system with too many rules, forms and slow offices.

In the evenings, he fought the British bureaucracy.

Modest. A modest person does not talk about their own success.

Nicholas was a modest man.

Scrapbook. A scrapbook is a book where you keep photos, tickets and other papers.

His scrapbook was full of names and photos.

Unsung. An unsung hero does great things but gets no thanks or fame.

For almost fifty years, he was an unsung hero.

Now, one pattern: little did he know.

We use it to say that someone had no idea about something important.

He did not know who sat beside him.

Little did he know who sat beside him.

Ready? Let's begin.

Nicholas Winton was born in London in 1909, to parents of German-Jewish origin.

He grew up to become a stockbroker, buying and selling shares in the City of London.

In December 1938, he was about to go skiing in Switzerland.

Then a friend asked him to come to Prague instead.

There he saw cold, crowded camps full of refugee families who had fled from the Nazis.

Parents begged him to save their children.

Britain would accept children, but each one needed a foster family and £50, a lot of money in those days.

So Nicholas decided to help evacuate as many children as he could.

Back in London, he worked at the Stock Exchange by day.

In the evenings, he fought the British bureaucracy.

When the official documents came too slowly, some were forged.

Later he said simply, "It worked."

"That's the main thing."

In March 1939, the first children flew to London.

Then seven trains followed, across Germany and the Netherlands, and then by ship to England.

Little did the children know who had organised their journey.

At Liverpool Street Station in London, foster families waited on the platform.

In all, 669 children reached Britain safely.

On 1 September 1939, the biggest group, about 250 children, was ready to leave.

That day, the war began.

The train never left.

After the war, he rarely spoke about it.

Nicholas was a modest man.

It was not a secret, he said.

He just did not talk about it.

His scrapbook was full of names and photos.

For almost fifty years, he was an unsung hero.

Then, in 1987, he showed the scrapbook to a historian, and she passed it to the BBC.

Little did he know what the BBC had planned.

In February 1988, he went to watch a TV show about his scrapbook.

Little did he know who sat beside him.

The woman next to him was one of the children he had saved.

She hugged him, and he wiped away a tear.

Later, the show invited him again.

This time, the presenter asked, "Is there anyone in our audience tonight who owes their life to Nicholas Winton?"

"If so, could you stand up, please?"

All around him, dozens of people stood up.

He called it the most emotional moment of his life.

In 2003, he became Sir Nicholas, and he died in 2015, aged 106.

Today, about 6,000 people, the children and their families, owe him their lives.

Let's review. He decided to help evacuate as many children as he could.

In the evenings, he fought the British bureaucracy.

Nicholas was a modest man.

His scrapbook was full of names and photos.

For almost fifty years, he was an unsung hero.

And remember: little did he know who sat beside him.

Nicholas Winton's story teaches us: if something is not impossible, there must be a way to do it.

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