Sir Nicholas Winton, known as “Britain’s Schindler” for saving 669 children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, died Wednesday with his daughter and grandchildren by his side. He was 106.
Known affectionately as “Nicky” by the children he saved, according to BBC, he spearheaded the Czech Kindertransport, arranging for trains to help them escape certain death in Auschwitz and finding them refuge in Britain.
Sir Winton’s efforts only became public in 1988 when the BBC television show “That’s Life!” featured his story and reunited him with some of the children he rescued. Since then, a statue erected at the Prague Main railway station in 2009 commemorates the trains he organized to transport children to safety. He also was knighted by the Queen in March 2013 and awarded the Czech Republic’s highest honor, the Order of the White Lion, a year later.
He died 76 years to the day after he helped 241 children out of Prague, seeing them off on a train he arranged.
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