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/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/[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/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?