Nicholas Winton is a real hero, this is the person we showcase, this is a real super hero for what he did during the Holocaust; he decided to save the children & you must listen; 60 Minutes did a good
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What a guy. WHAT. A. GUY.
Saints do indeed come in all shapes and sizes. Mr Winton is a true, living example -- of the most humble and decent kind: a silent, "Let's just get on with it now" sort of philanthrope.
Praise him, and God, Who made him so very, very well.
there were a few who tried to bring as many children out of Germany and other dangerous places to England and to Canada, Winton was one of them. The Windermere Children is another of these stories.
Wilfrid Israel is another and his story has been much overlooked. His family owned a department store in Berlin which was an entire city block, it was like the Macy's or Bloomindale's or Selfridge's of its time. He was able to save around 1,000 Jewish children.
On June 1 1943, the English actor Leslie Howard, whom you would know as Ashley in Gone With The Wind, and The Scarlet Pimpernel, among many other famous roles, he and his family left Hollywood and returned to England in Sept 1939, giving up a lucrative contract from David O. Selznick.
He was Jewish of Hungarian descent.
The BBC gave him a radio show to combat the propaganda of Goebbels.
In the spring of 1943 he was sent as a "Goodwill Ambassador" to Spain and Portugal but really was a spy for the British govt, being fluent in German and French. I know all this because I wrote a screenplay about it.
On June 1, 1943, Leslie and 12 other passengers boarded a DC3 which was among several which had escaped the bombing of Rotterdam earlier in the war. It was flown as a commercial aircraft with diplomatic immunity and a hands off attitude by the Germans.
However, it was blown to bits over the Bay of Biscay en route from Lisbon to England. Wilfrid Israel was one of the passengers on that plane. The loss of these two men is immeasurable due to the work they were doing.
I had help piecing together this story from interesting sources including the late Sir Martin Gilbert, who himself was sent to Canada with his brother from England during the war. He was the official historian for the Winston Churchill archives. His family came from the same town in Poland as my paternal grandfather's family, and I met him once in Toronto in 2002 when he came there as part of a book tour.
Then California Senator Barbara Boxer, whom I now know is part of the deep state, had someone from her staff go to the National Archives where the manifest and other documents relating to the crash were stored. There were children on board as well. I researched all the passengers but the only ones who stood out were Leslie and Wilfrid.
The question is why did the Luftwaffe suddenly appear and shoot down the plane? Who gave the orders, who told them where the plane was, and who was/were the target(s)?
I believe Winston Churchill was behind it. The question is why would he do such a terrible thing?
He did many terrible things throughout his career and lifetime.
I still hope to get the answers someday.