Isiah Berlin Society x Jewish Society talk on Sir Nicholas Winton

On Wednesday 17 April, the Isiah Berlin Society and Jewish Society hosted Nick Winton Jr., son of Sir Nicholas Winton, a humanitarian best known for organising the emigration of 669 Jewish children from Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia to Britain in 1939.

The talk discussed Sir Nick’s life and his humanitarian work. It was an inspiring and moving account of a man who spent his 106 year long life in the service of others. When Nick Winton Sr. travelled in 1938 to Czechoslovakia, he understood the danger that the considerable number of Jewish refugees were facing as the Nazi occupation loomed, and endeavoured to do what he could to help. Due to immigration requirements, only unaccompanied Jewish children were permitted to enter Britain despite the great number of Jewish refugees in Europe in the aftermath of the Kristallnacht uprising in Nazi Germany. Sir Nick Winton and his team in Prague overcame significant obstacles to find foster families for 669 Jewish children before the start of World War Two rendered further evacuation impossible. Nick Winton Jr. explained to the audience that his father had seen it as his duty to help those who were in need and facing danger.

Sir Nick believed that to be a good person required more than simply avoiding committing bad actions, it required actively doing good. His activism led him to subsequently work with charities involved with refugees and also to set up organisations committed to helping people with dementia, and families to care for their loved ones with mental disabilities. The talk emphatically stressed the importance of everyday acts of kindness, because every day we all change the world.

“If something is not fundamentally impossible, then there is a way to do it.” – Sir Nick Winton