Just to point out one little thing:
Sir Nicholas Winton, who has died aged 106, saved the lives of 669 children, most of them Jewish, from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia in 1939; but his achievement long went unrecognised and for 50 years few of the children knew their saviour’s name.
He was given the top medal in Prague last year. And OK, so I tend to hang around educated and switched on people. But several times I was asked “Did you see about that British bloke?” and this is among provincial Czechs. He gained, not fame, but honour, which is what should have happened and did.
And fame too:
On the day the newspaper published the story, Winton appeared on the BBC television That’s Life! show to discuss it. A week later he appeared on the programme again; this time the presenter Esther Rantzen invited the studio audience to stand up if they owed their life to Nicholas Winton, and the entire audience rose to its feet. “It was all absolutely awful,” Winton complained. He continued to insist he had never done anything special: “I just saw what was going on and did what I could to help.”
We don’t make them like that anymore, but maybe we’ve still got the blueprints somewhere.
Winterton in the title, Winton in the story. Different men!
Yes, my bad.
Please can we stop saying “my bad” – it’s fucking hideous.
WTF is wrong with “My mistake”????!!!
BiI
Very good! Though I suspect Tim’s not going to bite…
Yes, its good when lives are saved.
Rather dwarfed by the actions of a nazi named John Rabe. Saved a few more but not saving Jews so not seen the same way…
Seriously there will be many unsung heroes around – courage and willingness to act despite the risks is found in the unlikeliest of places.
WMC,
“We don’t make them like that anymore, but maybe we’ve still got the blueprints somewhere.”
I think there is a “rising to the occassion” in certain times. Oskar Schindler was a hopeless man for most of his life- in debt, failed businesses, failed marriages. But for about 3 or 4 years of his life, he was a Big Damn Hero.
And I’m not taking anything away from Winton. Even in those times, people who did what he did were rare.
By contrast, the Soviets celebrated the actions of such men as Raoul Wallenberg by arresting them and letting them die in jail.
Wonky Moral Compass – “We don’t make them like that anymore, but maybe we’ve still got the blueprints somewhere.”
No, I don’t think we do:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zygmunt_Bauman
Only the Poles, by the sounds of it, have any sort of moral compass at all.
Tim Newman – “By contrast, the Soviets celebrated the actions of such men as Raoul Wallenberg by arresting them and letting them die in jail.”
Tortured to death more like.