Sir Nicholas Winton is one of the truly great unsung heroes of the dark Nazi era. Over the period of 1938 to 1939, he staged the extraction of 669 Jewish children from Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia. In every case, the children were resettled in England. His life has been devoted to humanitarian causes and he himself is very unpretentious.
On one special occasion, his wife organizes an event that his him sitting beside some of the very people he helped save five decades earlier and Mr. Winton is completely unaware. It turns out his wife had come across a scrap book of sorts that chronicled each child which was rescued and included photographs of the children.
One of the survivors was Vera Gissing, who reveals herself as one of his rescues amid applause by the audience. Sir Winton himself is seen to wipe away the tears as he hugs Mrs. Gissing and receives a kiss from her.
She was repeatedly heard uttering the phrase to him, “Thank you!” When the host of the event asks the audience in attendance to arise if they owe their lives to Mr. Winton, everyone to his right along with everyone four rows behind him arise. It was stirring to watch the elderly gentleman slowly turn himself about and see the looks on the people there to honor him for is act of generosity generations ago.
Again, he is seen to wipe away tears as he retakes his seat. He has since been called “The British Schindler” and has been officially dubbed a hero of the holocaust.