The Englishman who saved 669 children from the Holocaust in 1938

Sir Nicholas George Winton was a British banker and humanitarian who established an organisation to rescue children at risk from Nazi Germany.

In 1938, Nicholas Winton was a young stockbroker in London. He was keenly aware of the events unfolding on the continent. In the early years of Hitler's rule, the Nazis attempted to make life so unpleasant for Jews that they would be forced to emigrate. Yet few other countries were willing to accept an influx of Jewish refugees.

Refugee camps were filling with families forced from their homes. Occupants were struggling to survive the European winter. In Czechoslovakia, Winton was struck by the appalling conditions and his greatest concern was for the children. 

Winton was convinced he could arrange the evacuation of young refugees to England. Winton and his colleagues Martin Blake and Doreen Warriner set up a makeshift headquarters in a hotel in Prague and began taking the names of families who wished to send their children to safety.

To get to safety, Winton's children had to travel through the heart of Nazi Germany. Eight trains departed from Warsaw between March and August 1939.

 However, a ninth train, which was set to leave on September 1, 1939, and carried another 250 children, never departed. On that very same day, Hitler invaded Poland and closed off all borders under German control, igniting World War II and bringing Winton's rescue work came to an end.