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| About 6,000 people worldwide owe their lives to Sir Nicholas Winton due to his actions just before World War II. |
He is also getting ready to accept the Order of the White Lion, which is the highest honor of the Czech Republic.
You probably never heard of Winton.
Toward the end of 1938, he was a stockbroker in London and decided to take his vacation to Czechoslovakia where the Nazis had invaded and refugees were trying to get out.
Parents, especially were struggling to get their Jewish kids to safety.
Winton decided to help, placing ads seeking foster families, engaging in a little bribery and fun and games with paperwork, that kind of thing. The result is 669 children who would have faced certain death from the Nazis escaped due to Winton's efforts.
His work went largely unnoticed until 1988, when the BBC did a little research, then aired a show in which Winton was reunited with a number of the people he saved.
Lately, there's been more attention brought to Winton's efforts. The venerable CBS program 60 Minutes recently did a feature on him.
There was recently also a big 105th birthday bash for Winton, at which many of the offspring of the children he saved showed up to wish him well and thank him. According to the Guardian, about 6,000 people in the world owe their lives to Winton for his actions before World War II.
On a side note, his story could make for a TERRIFIC movie.
"If it's not impossible, then it can be done," Winton has famously said.
Here's that video from the 1988 BBC show that reunited Winton with some of the people he saved. Kleenex alert for this one:
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