This is one in a series of dispatches from David G. Newman, who attended the recent Rotary World Peace Conference 2016 in Ontario, California. These stories are inspired by the organizers and presenters to this peace conference and are posted by Mr. Newman on CNC as part of the process of advancing Positive Peace in Winnipeg.
Barbara Winton
Barbara Winton told a story to the general assembly of conference attendees of her Rotarian father, Sir Nicholas Winton, who in 1939, organized the rescue and escape of 669 mostly Jewish children from the Nazis.
His scrapbook of what was done with details of all who escaped was shared with the BBC. A live TV program about his efforts (back when there were only three channels) was broadcast nationally.
In the broadcast, there was a large audience in the studio with Barbara’s father in the front row. The studio audience cheered when the announcer introduced her father to the woman on his right who was one of the children he saved 49 years before. They hugged and tears were shed.
Then he was introduced to the woman on his left with the same result. The house went wild with gratitude when hundreds of people in the audience were asked to stand to honour their saviour.
All of this was shown to us in black and white actual footage of that day.
His daughter has recently written a biography of her father called, If It’s Not Impossible…The Life of Sir Nicholas Winton.
Her father’s favourite saying was: “If something is not impossible there must be a way of doing it .” And that is what he proved in the way he went about saving 669 children.
Sir Nichalos Winton and his daughter Barbara Winton. /HEATHCLIFF O’MALLEY FOR THE TELEGRAPH
