to speak to you from. we ve also been speaking to some of the survivors and also his son, who said of your portrayal of his father, he told us, at times, i would swear that s my father in the room. well, i watched various documentaries on him. i come from a different background, different nationa. i m welsh. but ijust made those translations or transitions. but i watched him very carefully and, as i say, i was impressed by his modesty, his humility. i m just a cipher. i m just the kind of actor who just portrays it, but, no, thank nicholas winton. when i was clearing out all the papers, i came across that old scrapbook from prague. do you remember that? i do, yes. you re not throwing that out? no. i think it could be quite an important note of record in its way. you know, full of history we should learn from. it is. look, maybe the wiener archive
she donated all her documents to this library. the tragic thing is that we don t seem to learn and, all politics apart and religions apart, and so on, it s very interesting because winton said something so interesting, which i responded to. he was interviewed, i think, by an american journalist. he said, do you believe in god? and he said, well, nazi germany was playing for god. britain was praying for god, for peace. so where s god? and the otherjournalist asked him, do you see any hope for the future? he said, no, none at all. startling. and he was very dogmatic. he said, no, no hope for us, unless we learn to compromise, unless we learn to listen to the other question, the other side. otherwise, there is no hope. there are children here living in fields, in the open, in mud. the worst of winter s still to come and under the threat of nazi invasion.
and do you remember saying goodbye to your mother? oh, i remember, yes, because i was so poorly. but only one parent was allowed on the platform. and before the train went out, i rememberthe german soldiers were in a line. and theyjust lined up and kept the parents from going near the train. but on the film, it shows the parents going right up to the carriages. we are working to evacuate these children by train to safety in britain. why are you doing this, mr winton? to secure the children s visas, winton and his team had to find foster families for them before they came to britain. well, i d written a letter via my mother, which my mother had quite good english, that if they didn t have any spinach in england, and plenty of ice cream, i could be a very good girl.
we asked as many as possible of these grown up children to get in touch with us, so they d have the chance to thank mr winton personally. can i ask, is there anyone in our audience tonight who owes their life to nicholas winton? if so, could you stand up, please? after the first that s life episode featuring sir nicholas winton s story aired in 1988, dozens more survivors got in touch with the programme. sir nicholas was invited back to the studio, and this time the audience included many more of the children from the prague trains and their descendants. from this moment on, they called themselves nicky s children, and renate was one of them. applause tv clip: ..mr winton personally. renate: here s me. tv clip: can i ask, is there anyone in our audience tonight who owes their life to nicholas winton? and you d never met him at this point? no, never. no. tv clip: in the meantime, mr winton. ..
she pleads being in prague and trying to recreate these harrowing scenes in refugee camps and at the refugee office that he worked in with a tiny team watching people play the parents of children and they re sending their children off and seeing them, kind of, families wrenched apart and knowing what happened to the parents, you get a glimpse into what he would have felt. we are moving the children. in big groups, by train. that s a two day trip, - which would mean crossing holland and the dutch have shut their borders - tojewish refugees. and they d have to cross germany. yes, but they d only be passing through and on british visas. with british foster parents waiting. well, that is if you can find british foster parents. - there are 1,000 - children on that list. the welcome may not be as warm as you re all imagining. god bless nicholas winton and all people who tried. you know, it s like viktor frankl