Lately I've been feeling it's so important to remember, be inspired by, and model the best of what human beings can be., in the face of such a concentration on the worst in the media. In other words, I need good news before I fall into cynicism and despair. So I decided to remind myself of the many unknown heroes and heroines, amazing people most people will never hear about. This wonderful documentary has lingered with me for weeks, and I felt like sharing it here.
During part of the year, by the way, I rent rooms in my house like a B&B. I sometimes, but rarely, have Europeans visit. Strangely enough, in the way of synchronicity, as I write this I have no less than 3 travelling German women staying here, and a woman coming from Austria next week! None of them know each other, but they are all enjoying the unexpected opportunity to speak their native language in, of all places, far off Tucson! These women, an artist, a scholar, an alternative healer, are perhaps the children and grandchildren of the people who witnessed Hitler's rise to power and the horror of Nazi Germany. They are also contributing to the beauty and knowledge of the world................I don't know the meaning of this synchronicity, only that the film, and the synchronicity, leave me awed and reassured.
Sir Nicholas George Winton, still alive and over 100, is a British humanitarian who organized the rescue of 669 mostly Jewish children from German-occupied Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War. Winton found homes for the children and arranged for their safe passage to Britain. The UK press has dubbed him the "British Schindler". Just before Christmas 1938, Winton was about to travel to Switzerland for a skiing holiday, when he decided instead to travel to Prague to help his friend Martin Blake, who was involved in Jewish refugee work, who had called him asking for his help. A young, successful business man not even 30, he single-handedly established an organization to aid children from Jewish families at risk from the Nazis, setting up an office at a dining room table in his hotel in Wenceslas Square.
This film, created by one of the children he rescued, documents not only the rescue work, but also the lives of many of the children he rescued, the contributions they made to humanity themselves, the thousands of people who came into this world, and contribute to its betterment, from his work. "Nicky's Family"...........an expanding circle. Remarkable!
http://youtu.be/PGEXoXkDgqk
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