Recently I saw One Life, a movie based on the life of Sir Nicholas Winton. I can’t remember the last time that a film impacted me so much. And it’s a true story.
It starts out with the elderly Nicholas looking back on his life, feeling that he didn’t accomplish enough. Then it goes back 50 years to 1938-39, a time prior to WWII when Germany was pushing its way through Poland and into Czechoslovakia.
When Nicholas, a young British stockbroker, visits Prague, he’s appalled at all the families who’ve fled the Nazis.
They’re living on the streets even though it’s freezing cold outside. There’s minimal food and no shelter. And being Jewish, many of them risk deportation to German concentration camps.
He decides he needs to save the children. So, he goes back to England to figure out the process. Turns out it’s a Herculean task. He needs to raise money to cover costs. He needs to deal with a slow-moving bureaucracy. He needs to find foster families for each child.
Plus, he needs to work with a team in Prague to do the paperwork and get the kids on the train.
It’s a race against time too. With the war gearing up, the borders are closing. The trains could be stopped at any moment.
He’s asked why he’s doing this … at great risk to himself … and no personal gain.
He basically answered, “Because if I may be able to do something about it, then I must. It’s the right thing to do.” And he also said,
“If something is not impossible,
then there must be a way to do it.”
Sir Nicholas Winton
He’s right. And ultimately, because he believes in what’s really possible, he saves over 669 children.
But at age 79, he’s still bereft. The last train never made it out of Czechoslovakia—and there were 250 kids on that train. He blamed himself for not doing enough.
Someone asks him if ever thinks about all the children and what happened to them. He shrugs his shoulders; there’s no way of finding out.
And then, a miracle happens. It’s a true story, so I won’t tell you the rest.
Check out the movie. Or get the book: One Life: The True Story of Sir Nicholas Winton.
Okay. If you can’t wait to find out, look at this 1988 video clip from “That’s Life,” a British talk show.
