'Nicky & Vera' by Peter Sis (Courtesy W.W. Norton and Company); Holocaust-era hero Nicholas Winton, who helped save 669 Czech children from the Nazi invasion. (AP/Petr David Josek, File)
When Vera, a young Jewish girl, was growing up outside of Prague in 1938, she had little on her mind besides her grandmother and love of animals. But her blissful childhood would change forever with the emerging crisis brought about by her country’s neighbor, Nazi Germany.
When Vera’s parents learned about an opportunity for Jewish children to escape to the United Kingdom organized by an Englishman named Nicholas Winton, they sent their 9-year-old daughter on a train out. Ultimately, 669 Jewish children were saved by the series of transports out of Czechoslovakia.