r/MadeMeSmile • u/RoyalChris • Feb 25 '25

Wholesome Moments Nicholas Winton helped 669 Jewish children escape the Nazis and his efforts went unrecognised for 50 years. Then, in 1988, while sitting as a member of a TV audience, he suddenly found himself surrounded by the kids he had rescued, who were now adults.

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7.7k

u/RonnieHasThePliers Feb 25 '25

What is truly amazing about this story is he didn't tell anybody what he did. He went on a skiing trip and war broke out. He knew what was up and got those kids to England and kept their names in a scrapbook. Something like 30 years later, his wife finds the scrapbook and is all like "what's with this?" And he must've been like "just the kids I saved, what do you think we should have for dinner?".

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u/72kdieuwjwbfuei626 Feb 25 '25 edited Feb 25 '25

It’s Sir Nicholas Winton MBE. The knighthood is for saving the children, but the MBE he got before this story was published. It’s for entirely unrelated charity work.

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u/SockNo948 Feb 25 '25

so just generally a heroic motherfucker then

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u/Latter-League-2655 Feb 26 '25

IIRC he was on the British Olympic fencing team but the Olympics was cancelled due to the war

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u/Practical_Ledditor54 Feb 26 '25

And that's when it became...personal.

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u/Vryly Feb 26 '25

The Man Who Stabbed Hitler, Justice won't be Foiled, coming this summer.

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u/zeugma888 Feb 26 '25

Brilliant title!

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u/Dreaming_in_Sign Feb 26 '25

Incredible 😂

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u/Flanderkin Feb 26 '25

The poster is H-Doofus clutching his junk with a very serious “Ach! Mein Gott!” Face. The shadow of a fencer lies across the desk they are standing next to.

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u/Expensive_Prior_5962 Feb 26 '25

British.... Heroic motherfucker.....

Yes... Of course.

;)

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u/Ds3- Feb 26 '25

MBE?

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u/PiersPlays Feb 26 '25

It's another type of Royal award.

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u/piercedmfootonaspike Feb 27 '25

I thought the knighthood came with the CBE or GBE, so how is he still "just" an MBE? If he had an MBE before, wouldn't he be "upgraded" to a CBE?

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u/cfeltch108 Feb 26 '25

Sadly, the reason is there was a another transport that had a third of the kids planned for rescue, that got stopped at the last minute, and out of 300 or so kids, only 2 were known to have survived. Nicholas considered the whole thing a failure because of that, even though he saved more lives than some people whose jobs revolve around saving lives.

Every time I watch this clip, I see a nice old man realizing that that situation was something he didn't have to feel completely horrible about anymore.

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u/Acceptable-Bell142 Feb 26 '25

The transport was due to leave the day Germany invaded Poland. Some of the children on that transport were the siblings of children he'd already brought to the UK.

None of the children who should've been on that transport survived the Holocaust.

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u/cfeltch108 Feb 26 '25

I looked it up, it was 2. It was also only 250 it turns out, and sadly it's not they're believed to be the only two that survived, they were the only two that survived.

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u/Acceptable-Bell142 Feb 26 '25

I'm glad they've updated the information. I read that before he died, and it stuck with me.

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u/cfeltch108 Feb 26 '25

I totally get that. The fact that it was only 2 stuck with me too, I only rechecked the story after seeing your comment.

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u/theatermouse Feb 26 '25

Every time I watch this clip, I see a nice old man realizing that that situation was something he didn't have to feel completely horrible about anymore.

Just the joy in his face from meeting that one woman next to him - and the there's so many more!!

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '25

A lot of people did things like this and never spoke of it to anyone, my great grandmother was one of them

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u/nun_the_wiser Feb 25 '25

my family too. They lived in an apartment complex and they had a whole system to keep people safe. There was one woman they couldn’t save, and my grandmother testified at the trial of the Nazi who killed her.

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u/fisherthem_ Feb 25 '25

Thats awesome and something to be proud of. I exist because of people like your grandmother.

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u/nun_the_wiser Feb 26 '25

Thank you for sharing that ❤️

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u/negao360 Feb 26 '25

Glad you're here🤗

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u/Leading_Garage_6582 Feb 26 '25

Yeah, I don't think people understand how insane WW2 was. My Grandfather was a gunner on a Jeep in the European front, only thing he's ever said to me and my dad about it is "killing is not good"

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u/PopeInnocentXIV Feb 26 '25

Jeremy Clarkson did a great documentary on the history of the Victoria Cross, and focused on one in particular, Major Robert Cain.

He died of cancer in 1974. Sadly, that means I never met him, which is a shame for two reasons: firstly, because I'm absolutely fascinated with VC winners; and secondly, because I'm married to his daughter. She didn't even know he'd won a Victoria Cross until after he died. He never thought to mention it.

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u/skiesfullofbats Feb 26 '25

That's sounds like my grandpa. He fought in the battle of the bulge and was captured then sent to Stalag IX-B where he was starved, got really sick, and saw many of the other prisoners die. He didn't mention much of what he went through during his time in WWII, it was pretty clear that it was not things he wanted to remember or talk much about. He went to war a Lutheran and came back atheist, said no god could exist and if it did but allowed those horrors to happen, it wasn't a god worth following.

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u/KataqNarayan Feb 26 '25

My grand uncle lost his leg in the amphibious invasion of Italy. He was a tank commander. I just remember as a kid that he was missing a leg and never thought to ask why. He never talked about it. I only found out because my grandfather (shortly before he died) told me. He said “Ah Walter.. he loved his tanks”.

It just seems so common that our grand parents don’t really talk about any of it.

He served in the Met Police after, despite missing a leg. Should probably try emailing them and seeing what he go up to there.

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u/Montantero Feb 26 '25

You most definitely should email them, this sounds like it could lead to such interesting stories!!

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u/CelestialGlowXa Feb 26 '25

not gonna lie, this got me teary-eyed… true kindness never fades

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u/tzippora Feb 26 '25

Wow....you came from good stock.

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u/pleonhart Feb 25 '25

In Judaism there's a saying (accompanied by a cautionary tale) that the greatest tzedakah (an act of good/good will) someone can do is the one no one know about. So even if your great grandmother never told a soul about it, if you believe in some kind of divine providence, she absolutely got something good for it.

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u/TiredEnglishStudent Feb 26 '25

Another saying in Judaism is that when someone saves one life, it's as if he saved an entire world. Imagine people like Nicholas Winton who saved hundreds of worlds. 

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u/Saylor4292 Feb 26 '25

For real and you still see the breadth of that truth here in these comments. Truly remarkable. ✊

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u/SeaWolfSeven Feb 26 '25

That's really beautiful and true.

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u/___horf Feb 26 '25

And even if you don’t believe in divine providence, there’s gotta be some truth to ancient wisdom anyway, right?

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u/DDRaptors Feb 26 '25

Yup. My family housed Jews during the War. The Germans even found out about it, luckily near the end of the war, so the young German soldiers also ignored it and didn’t tell their superiors either. Thanks to them all I’m here today. 

It takes noble people from all walks for this species to survive. 

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u/Nimue_- Feb 26 '25

Damn, all the stories in this thread are so cool. My granddad just stole his neighbours radio back from the nazis lol

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u/TheSciFiGuy80 Feb 26 '25

Every little bit helps

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u/TheStinger87 Feb 26 '25

How were they supposed to get their traffic reports then? The nerve of him.

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u/MediumAwkwardly Feb 26 '25

Still basass! Resist however we can!

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '25

Heh, in my county there was a German base ands they forced the locals to cook for them and feed them. Let's just say there were a lot less stray cats in the area for a while

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u/queefer_sutherland92 Feb 26 '25

My grandfather.

He never mentioned it. He was a small, quiet man who liked to build things and occasionally contribute to history.

Once I found a picture of him in a newspaper from the 50s showing the mayor some major building he was engineering. Never knew about that either.

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u/CrazyFish1911 Feb 26 '25

My wife's great aunt... was always active in veterans causes, and we knew she was a WAC member. She always said she was part of the propaganda dept. But then she got a spot on one of the Honor Flights to go to DC and a reporter saw she was the only woman on the flight and started interviewing her. Turns out she started out in propaganda but got recruited by the secret service (or whatever it was called then) and was sent out to do things like collect evidence on the balloon bombs that hit the west coast from Japan (they sent women in plain clothes because they wanted to keep the balloon bomb thing quiet). She was in a group that was championed by Eleanor Roosevelt and met her numerous times. Also received an award which was presented to her by General MacArthur. She spent the war doing intelligence work. Nobody knew for 40+ plus years because it was classified at the time and her ability to keep her mouth shut about things was one of the reason she was recruited.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '25

Damn, go auntie war hero! Breaking all the gossiping stereotypes

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u/CrazyFish1911 Feb 27 '25 edited Feb 27 '25

Lol, she was literally in an elevator with a bunch of the other women from the propaganda group and an army officer got on with them. He was quizzing them all about what they were working on and she stayed quiet. He finally looked at her specifically and said "what about you?" and her response was "They told us not to talk about it." He came back the next day and told her she was being reassigned.

Edit: I should mention that this lady was an absolute gem and a badass. Lived independently and was still competently driving until she died in her mid 90s. She believed in "service every day" and one of things she did that always cracked me up was that even in her 90s she would go down to the care center every week and run bingo "for the old people"... the fact that she was older than most of them never seemed to occur to her lol.

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u/t0adthecat Feb 26 '25

I seen a post in reddit r/conservatives. That said "if the left think it's wrong to deport illegals, why don't you see them talking about hiding them in their homes"

I was banned because I didn't know the rules and said "I think that would defeat the whole purpose right". Lol

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u/ci1979 Feb 26 '25

I would wear than ban like a badge of honor

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u/t0adthecat Feb 26 '25

Absolutely.

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u/NDSU Feb 26 '25

Wouldn't that just be a sanctuary city? I thought they got very angry about those

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u/t0adthecat Feb 26 '25

Dude. They don't make sense in their own circle jerks. I mean, think about that, they asked why people aren't posting they are hiding undocumented immigrants to let others know. Lol. Common sense is not a republican strength. Not really sure what is.

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u/HotPinkHabit Feb 26 '25 edited Feb 26 '25

I’m curious what rule this eminently reasonable response broke?

Eta: i want over there to look around and couldn’t last more than few minutes. Ew

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u/NukinDuke Feb 26 '25

Not being a piece of shit probably

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u/t0adthecat Feb 26 '25

Oh, so you have to have flair, not sure how they determine or give that out. But if you have ANY i mean ANY speaking points against typical conservative convo, that's it. I mean though that's a logical question. If I was sneaking or hiding something, why would I announce it right?

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u/t0adthecat Feb 26 '25

Also, I used my other random account to comment again and reddit figured out it was me. Lolol. I know, I know. I only troll the right because it's honestly not trolling. It's common sense.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '25

Yeah don't go there, it's gross.

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u/TheShipEliza Feb 26 '25

Imo in a crisis like that you cant speak of it. You just have to do good. If you tell ppl you make the ppl you helped targets and point out a weakness in the plan of the oppressor. Just gotta do good and go on about your day. I think about this a lot as an american in 2025.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '25

I mean that they never spoke of it later, when it was safe

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u/NothingAndNow111 Feb 26 '25

My friend's grandparents, as well. They only discovered everything years after the grandfather died and the grandmother had dementia. Both were eventually inducted (? Added?) to the Yad Vashem Righteous Among the Nations (I went to the ceremony), but they never knew.

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u/Attheveryend Feb 26 '25

just good opsec.

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u/DoobKiller Feb 25 '25 edited Feb 26 '25

how do you know if she never mentioned it to anyone?

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u/[deleted] Feb 25 '25

We didn't find out until my mother and her sister were contacted by a jewish organization that does work to find and honor people like that. We were invited to a ceremony where they were given a medal on behalf of their grandmother, and a woman who was just a girl back then told us everything about it. And then about 50 people in the room stood up and they were all decendants from the people who were saved back then. Even my granddad who was a small boy then, never spoke a work about it (he had passed by the time my mom was contacted)

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u/ci1979 Feb 26 '25

Wow, what a beautiful and deeply touching legacy. I'm glad your grandparents passed on their wonderful genes, I hope goodness is somewhat genetic.

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u/ExcitementMost6948 Feb 26 '25

God Bless her!

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u/Rikoschett Feb 27 '25

How do you know if she never spoke of it?

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u/[deleted] Feb 28 '25

I have replied to two others who asked the same. There is an organisation that works to recognize people who did these things

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u/ProtonPizza Feb 25 '25

And to think today she'd have a whole career as youtuber profit-helping people.

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u/Morticia_Marie Feb 26 '25

Not necessarily. There are still plenty of people who do good without drawing attention to themselves. You just don't hear about them because they don't have careers as YouTubers profit-helping people.

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u/ForwardRhubarb2048 Feb 26 '25

How do you know about it, if she never spoke of it to anyone?

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '25

We didn't find out until my mother and her sister were contacted by a jewish organization that does work to find and honor people like that. We were invited to a ceremony where they were given a medal on behalf of their grandmother, and a woman who was just a girl back then told us everything about it. And then about 50 people in the room stood up and they were all decendants from the people who were saved back then. Even my granddad who was a small boy then, never spoke a work about it (he had passed by the time my mom was contacted)

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u/Admirable_Addendum99 Feb 25 '25

That's all it takes to do the right thing. It doesn't have to be broadcasted to the world. This guy was one of the real ones.

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u/Actual_Body_4409 Feb 26 '25

Yeah, but they didn’t have TikTok in 1939.

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u/FloppieTheBanjoClown Feb 26 '25

An old family secret revolved around my grandmother's great grandfather. It sort of became a mystery to the family how he died and it was treated as something they couldn't talk about.

Turns out he was lynched for helping freed slaves out of Louisiana during the civil war. His son was involved, and the secret was for his safety. Their role was forgotten for decades until my mother dug up some old newspaper article about it. 

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u/Successful_Nebula805 Feb 26 '25

My mother talks, somewhat nostalgically, and certainly repeatedly, about the slaves her grandfather’s family used to own. I like your family secrets better than my family anecdotes.

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u/ResultFlimsy415 Feb 26 '25

Yeah. When these WWII stories come up, I can only remember that my grandmother helped run an internment camp outside of Dallas during the War. At least she wasn’t super proud of it even if she justified the camps because FDR said they were necessary. At least she went to work for Dr. Pepper to atone.

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u/Alternative-Chef-340 Feb 27 '25

My Japanese-American grandfather fought in the 442nd regimental combat team which was made up of Japanese-Americans. A lot of the guys came from and had families in those camps. He got lucky being form Hawaii, his family didn't get interned though Hawaii was under martial law. They ended up becoming one of the most decorated units in US military history.

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u/coffee_and-cats Feb 25 '25

He didn't see the point in talking about it. It was something that had to be done and so it was done.

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u/Colonel_K_The_Great Feb 26 '25

Helping people just to help them, if everyone did this we'd all be so much better off.

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u/Cutsdeep- Feb 27 '25

check out my channel 'savingjewishkids' don't forget to like share subscribe and buy my energy drink

1

u/Colonel_K_The_Great Feb 27 '25

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2

u/ace9111 Feb 26 '25

That is the most important part. You do what you know needed to be done. Not what would get you the most likes. Everyone now needs to promote themselves to show they are important.

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u/jk2me1310 Feb 26 '25

He looks around the crowd and just give a nod like "that'll do, no need to stand up for me." What a badass.

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u/808duckfan Feb 26 '25

It's the most British reaction ever.

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u/glitzglamglue Feb 25 '25

I've always wondered what are the numbers for how many people were saved during the Holocaust and how many ordinary people helped out.

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u/slagath0r Feb 26 '25

Now that speaks volumes to his character, even more. What an incredible man

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u/JJRyder99 Feb 26 '25

Too bad trumps not more like him.

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u/Suddenlynotcis Feb 26 '25

That’s exactly that generation. My grandfather was the same way. You did the right thing out of almost habit and didn’t think anything of it.

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u/BiZzles14 Feb 26 '25

He went on a skiing trip and war broke out

Why does the full BBC clip of this say that his friend suggested he go to Prague in 1938 to help refugees, which his friend was already doing there, if that were the case?

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u/GarMan Feb 26 '25

Wikipedia says

> Shortly before Christmas 1938, Winton was planning to travel to Switzerland for a skiing holiday. Following a call for help from Marie Schmolka and Doreen Warriner,\17]) he decided instead to visit Prague and help Martin Blake...

So both can be true.

1

u/SoloAquiParaHablar Feb 26 '25

Got back home, objected to conscription, change this mind and went and joined the airforce to go pop some Nazis.

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u/jk72788 Feb 26 '25

Respectfully, what is truly amazing about this story is that he saved the lives of 669 jewish content from certain death. He could’ve told the whole world and he’d just as much a hero

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u/ProtectionNo514 Feb 26 '25

my grandpa also did this with some guy who was wanted to being executed. He didn't tell anyone until I've found his notebook decades later and asked him: "hey grandpa, who is adolf eichmann? really emotive