Inspiration by Goodness project is culminating
01.09.2009
Senator Karel Schwarzenberg dispatches the historic Winton Train on its four-day journey from Prague to London.
The Winton Train – Inspiration by Goodness project has culminated with the departure of the historic Winton Train on its symbolic journey from Prague to London. It was dispatched from Prague’s Main Station on its four-day journey to London by Senator Karel Schwarzenberg. As part of the festive departure, which was attended by, Chairman of the Senate of the Czech Republic Přemysl Sobotka; Transport Minister Gustáv Slamečka; Minister for the European Affairs Štefan Füle; Minister of Foreign Affairs Jan Kohout; Czech Railways CEO Petr Žaluda; Railway Infrastructure Administration CEO Jan Komárek; Barbara Winton, Sir Nichalas’s daughter; and many other notable guests. In personal letters, Queen Elizabeth II and former Czech President Václav Havel expressed their support for the Winton Train – Inspiration by Goodness project. As part of the departure ceremony, a life-sized statue of Nicholas Winton by British artist Flor Kent was unveiled, and depicts a young Nicholas Winton with a child in his arms.
For the duration of the project, which was first presented to the public in May of last year, there were a series of interesting events focused especially on young people, who were inspired by the story of Nicholas Winton and the children he rescued. On the occasion of the dispatch of the unique and historic Winton Train, a large number of so-called “Winton’s children” met in Prague together with their families, winners of student contests, personalities from public life as well as Nicholas Winton’s daughter, Barbara, and her family. Together they all set out on a journey which some of them had already absolved as children when they left occupied Czechoslovakia for the safety of British families. The four-day journey across Germany and the Netherlands to Great Britain and London’s Liverpool Street Station will culminate in a meeting with Sir Nicholas Winton, who will personally welcome the train.
Seventy years ago, the then 30-year-old British bank clerk Nicholas Winton understood very well the growing danger of rising Nazism, and instead of going on a planned ski holiday in Switzerland departed for Prague. And there he began to immediately organise a rescue mission for primarily Jewish children who faced death in extermination camps. From March until September 1939 he was able to transport from Prague to London and thereby rescue 669 children who found refuge in British families.
The families of the children he rescued have now grown to more than 5000 descendants. As Nicholas Winton did not consider his deed particularly significant, he did not tell anyone about it during the following 50 years. By chance while cleaning out the attic, his wife Greta ran across documents relating to these rail transports of children. From the moment when the story of Nicholas Winton and the rescued children was made public, it has attracted the attention of greater and greater numbers of people.
Today it is more than obvious that even after 70 years this almost-forgotten story has lost none of its topicality, and that in today’s turbulent world it speaks to the young generation with even more urgency than in the past. The Winton Train – Inspiration by Goodness project is dedicated in particular to students, who have been involved in the project since last year and have actively sought out and captured in their artworks stories of personal courage and goodness.
On this day the Winton Train o.p.s. association together with Czech Railways dispatched a historic train from Prague to London not only to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the rescue, but especially to call to remembrance the thousands of children who could not depart on future trains due to the outbreak of war, most of whom later perished in Nazi concentration camps.
