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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u/fourthords Feb 25 '25

Sir Nicholas George Winton MBE (né Wertheim; 19 May 1909 – 1 July 2015) was a British stockbroker and humanitarian who helped to rescue refugee children, mostly Jewish, whose families had fled persecution by Nazi Germany. Born to German-Jewish parents who had immigrated to Britain at the beginning of the 20th century, Winton assisted in the rescue of 669 children from Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II. On a brief visit to Czechoslovakia, he helped compile a list of children in danger and, returning to Britain, he worked to fulfill the legal requirements of bringing the children to Britain and finding homes and sponsors for them. This operation was later known as the Czech Kindertransport (German for 'children's transport').

His humanitarian accomplishments remained unknown and unnoticed by the world for nearly 50 years until 1988 when he was invited to the BBC television programme That's Life!, where he was reunited with dozens of the children he had helped come to Britain and was introduced to many of their children and grandchildren. The British press celebrated him and dubbed him the "British Schindler". In 2003, Winton was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for "services to humanity, in saving Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia". In 2014, he was awarded the highest honour of the Czech Republic, the Order of the White Lion (1st class), by Czech President Miloš Zeman. Winton died in 2015, aged 106.

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u/PetulantPersimmon Feb 26 '25

I don't think I've ever seen 'né' for a man before, only ever 'née' for the ladies!

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u/shediedjill Feb 26 '25

Interestingly it looks like his family’s Jewish name was Wertheim but they changed it to Winton to integrate after they moved to London! Hence the ne.

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u/Fluid_Bookkeeper_693 Feb 27 '25

Well, the né is beacause he was born with a different name, but what PetulantPersimmon was referring to was the difference in né and née. Né stands for "originally born as", you're right on this one. But here, né is used because he was a man. Née is used when referring to a woman. Hope that helps :)

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u/shediedjill Feb 27 '25

Yeah I understood that haha, I was just referring to the fact that there’s a reason why this gentleman even has ‘ne’ whereas it’s traditionally women who do.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '25

we are the knights who say

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u/JobExcellent1151 Feb 27 '25

Maybe not the right place for such shenanigans but I applaud you good sir👏

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u/Fluid_Bookkeeper_693 Feb 27 '25

né stands for "born" in french. "né" is the masculine version of "born" because a single "é" is the ending here. "Née" is the feminine ending version since all feminine past tense endings in frnech typically end in an additional "e". For example: "il a mangé" meaning "he ate" while "elle a mangée" means "she ate". In this case, you're referring to "il est né" and "elle est née" which is just cut short to "né" and "née".

Hope I could help :)

Edit: spelling

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u/PetulantPersimmon Feb 28 '25

Oh, I know what it means. I just never see it for men! Until now.

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u/AWOOGABIGBOOBA 27d ago

fyi "né" and "née" is just "born" (masculine and feminine spellings) in french

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u/maunzendemaus Feb 26 '25

106! what a lifespan

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u/NocturnalCheese Feb 26 '25

And from the same Wikipedia article, he died 76 years to the day after 241 of the children he helped save departed Prague by train.

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u/Blackthorne75 Feb 27 '25

An extraordinary life; we need more like him in our little blue world.

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u/Jubijub Mar 01 '25

Can you imagine his karma ? You got to be invincible with a karma like this :)

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u/JimmyJonJackson420 Feb 26 '25

What an incredibly man like this is so touching

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u/Anuki_iwy Feb 26 '25

I'm sobbing. What a touching story.

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u/NefariousnessOpen730 Feb 27 '25

This is how our role models should look like, not super rich tech billionaires, egoistic, selfish bigots. In a world of Musk and Trump, be a Nicholas Winton!