Nicholas Winton

In December 1938, 29-year-old Nicholas Winton canceled a ski vacation and traveled to Prague instead, where he found thousands of Jewish refugees living in terrible conditions. He spent the next nine months forging documents, bribing officials, and arranging trains to bring 669 children out of Czechoslovakia to foster families in Britain.\n\nHe placed newspaper advertisements seeking British families. He handled every detail himself, often working from his bedroom at his parents' home in London. When WWII began on September 1, 1941, the last transport of 250 children was set to leave Prague — the train was boarded up by the SS and those children were never seen again. The loss haunted Winton for the rest of his life.\n\nWinton told absolutely no one — not even his wife — for 49 years. In 1988, his wife Grete found a scrapbook in the attic containing the names, photographs, and addresses of all the children he had saved. She brought it to a Holocaust researcher, and the story went public.\n\nOn the BBC program "That's Life!" in 1988, the host asked the audience: "Is there anyone here tonight who owes their life to Nicholas Winton?" The entire audience rose to their feet. They were the children he had saved, now grown to adults, many with their own children and grandchildren. Winton sat among them and wept.\n\nHe was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2003. He died on July 1, 2015, at age 106.