He organized en detail the children’s trip across Germany and the Netherlands by train and their ship voyage across the English Channel. Winton remained silent about his efforts to save Jewish children from the Nazis until 1988, when his wife discovered a scrapbook with the list of names he had recorded. In 2002, he was knighted for his services to humanity. “You gave these children the greatest possible gift, the chance to live and be free,” Czech President Milos Zeman wrote in a May 2014 letter to Winton. About 10,000 Jewish children from Germany and Austria were saved and given shelter in the U.K. before and during the war. Winton devoted himself to charity work and helped establish Abbeyfield homes for elderly people with special needs.
