The 'British Schindler' Rescued More Than 600 Children From Near-Certain Death

In October 1939, Nazi Germany annexed a large portion of western Czechoslovakia. News had reached the world of Germany's violent campaigns against Jews, and many feared that their growing presence in Czechoslovakia meant that Czech Jews were no longer safe.

Nicholas Winton, who was 29-years-old at the time, was working as a stockbroker in London. When he learned about the situation in Czechoslovakia he became concerned about the Nazi threat and decided to act. Setting up an office for his new organization in the dining room of a Prague hotel, Winton utilized a 1938 Act of Parliament that allowed refugee children under the age of 17 to enter the U.K. as long as money was deposited and a family was found to look after them.

At the time, there was no other organizations in Prague to help transport refugee children, and Winton quickly realized that it was his responsibility to attempt to rescue as many Jewish Czech children as he could. Parents who could not secure visas for their whole family, but feared for their children's safety would desperately come to Winton, trusting him with the task of getting the children out of the country to England.