#Sudetenland

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Demonstrators protesting Germany's attempt to annex Sudetenland (a part of Czechoslovakia) march through the throngs of Times Square tourists, September 27, 1938.

Photo: Marty Lederhandler for the AP

#vintage New York #1930s #Marty Lederhandler #Nazi Germany #protest #demonstration #Sudetenland #Sudetenland crisis #Hitler #Munich accord #World War II #Sept. 27 #27 September #September 27 #27 Sept.

[marcusohz]

Beim Jahrestreffen des BdV dankte Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz den Vertriebenen für ihre Versöhnungsarbeit und ihr Engagement für ein geeintes Europa. 🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺 Scholz: „Auch der Ukraine-Krieg wird tiefe Spuren in Europa hinterlassen, aber nicht im Sinne Putins, sondern für ein Europa, das enger zusammensteht als je zuvor.“ 🤝🇪🇺#bdv #bunddervertriebenen #berlin #bundeskanzler #bundeskanzleramt #europa #versöhnung #ostpreussen #vertreibung #heimat #pommern #schlesien #sudetenland #olafscholz #bundesregierung #picoftheday #berlincity (hier: Katholische Akademie in Berlin e.V.) https://www.instagram.com/p/CqX8iWssNEY/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#bdv #bunddervertriebenen #berlin #bundeskanzler #bundeskanzleramt #europa #versöhnung #ostpreussen #vertreibung #heimat #pommern #schlesien #sudetenland #olafscholz #bundesregierung #picoftheday #berlincity

[tomorrowusa]

Those suggesting that we should be “negotiating” with Putin need to be reminded how badly other negotiations with dictators turned out over territory in Europe. 

Putin has already violated the 1975 Helsinki Accords, also known as the Helsinki Final Act. He’s in blatant violation of almost every point in Section 1(a). These are just the headings shown in the contents.

Putin is also in violation of the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances which applies directly to the security of Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. It was signed by those countries, Russia, the US, and the UK. There are specific agreements for Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. This is from the one which applies specifically to Ukraine.

Point #2...

The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and The United States of America reaffirm their obligation to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of Ukraine, and that none of their weapons will ever be used against Ukraine except in self-defense or otherwise in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.

Point #4...

The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and The United States of America reaffirm their commitment to seek immediate United Nations Security Council action to provide assistance to Ukraine, as a non-nuclear-weapon state party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, if Ukraine should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used.

There’s more in that document, which has the status of a treaty, about respecting “the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine.”

My point is that Russia has broken existing agreements regarding Ukraine and has no intention of honoring any new ones. The only way to stop Putin is by giving every possible non-nuclear weapon to Ukraine to defend itself from Russia’s imperialist aggression.

Negotiating with Hitler was futile and counterproductive. The same is true about Putin.

EDIT: Just ran across this at @KyivIndependent.

#vladimir putin #russia #invasion of ukraine #putetenland #negotiations #munich 1938 #neville chamberlain #adolph hitler #sudetenland #world war ii #russia's treaty breaking #helsinki accords #1975 helsinki final act #budapest memorandum on security assurances #ukraine's independence and sovereignty #россия #руки прочь от украины! #владимир путин #это ВОЙНА а не 'спецоперация' #путлер #путин хуйло #слава україні #україна переможе #stand with ukraine

[hulkowaaa]

Petr Čepek ve filmu Adelheid (1969), rež. František Vláčil/Petr Čepek in the movie Adelheid (1969), dir. by František Vláčil

#petr čepek #adelheid #emma černá #františek vláčil #sudetenland #war #postwar #drama #psychology #film #60s #czechoslovakia #1969 #miluju ho!!! #<3

[fotonomaden-de]

Rundfahrt durchs Sudetenland

Mit dem Auto in wenig bekannte Gebiete Tschechiens Unbekanntes Sudetenland Ein alter Freund rief mich an, ob ich Lust hätte, ihn auf einer Autotour durch das Sudetenland zu begleiten. Er wollte die Heimat seiner Eltern kennenlernen und allgemein einen Eindruck von der Gegend gewinnen. Eine interessante Gelegenheit! Auch meine Mutter stammt aus Mähren. Interessant auch, weil diese Gegend ein…

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#Auto #Gastfreundschaft #Gastlichkeit #Gastronomie #kurztrip #polen #Schlesien #Sprache #Sprachprobleme #Sudetenland #tour #tschechien #tschechisch

[logonda]

Dresden - Sarajevo - Bad Driburg

Dresden - Sarajevo - Bad Driburg Read the full article

#Bibel #Dresden #Ems #Hethiter #Hombroich #Inka #Jugendstil #Kopernikus #Oldenburg #Preussen #Rügen #Sarajevo #Sibirien #Sudetenland #Usedum #Weser

[angarion-consultant]

#Sudetenland mein Heimatland

[al-kol-eleh]

Chester A. Arthur

#israel hamas war #hamas atrocities #it's genuinely sickening #Hitler and the Nazis used to provoke incidents in the Sudetenland and Poland against ethnic Germans for propaganda purposes #but he didn't stop anyone from running to bomb shelters or the subway

[da-riya]

Do hate when someone seems to be talking with a reasonable tone about geopolitical situations. But then you think about it for a minute and it hits you that "That's just Appeasement!"

#“We don't have much influence in the situation we must do what little we can to send humanitarian aid” fair enough do what ya can #“and that's why we shouldn't piss them off by calling them out for their crimes” ...wait a minute that's just what they want!! #It's like okay Arthur Neville “just give them the bloody Sudetenland.” Chamberlain. Hope that works out well for you!

[cqcandchill]

i love when journalists masquerading as historians throw blatant shade at each other. even funnier to consider that shirer has been dead for TWENTY YEARS at the time this was published

#my sense of humour is so specific i can't send this to anyone else w/o blank stares so on tumblr it goes #this is right up there w shirer sassing h^tler about wanting only peace wrt the sudetenland #god. funniest fuckers in this business.

[filosofablogger]

Ukrainian Blood On Our Hands?

Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter yesterday addresses what I believe to be a critical situation for the U.S. today.  It is a thoughtful and thought-provoking piece and I hope you’ll take a few minutes to ponder her words. Stef W. Kight and Zachary Basu of Axios reported tonight that the border measure, on which a bipartisan group of senators have worked for four months, is “on life support”…

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#Russian expansion #Senator Angus King #Sudetenland 1938 #Vladimir Putin #war in Ukraine

[lorenzlund]

Schön Men(-)As(s)

popmusicians/names

*(This is) Harry’s Stil, Your Style Your Personal Statement!, Sean Penn, Michel Obama, German Baracks, Barack Obama, Michel Jack’s Son, Michael König ist Deutscher, der deutsche Michel, ‘Michelle Ma Belle’ singen plötzlich selbst die Beatles. Italiener singen: ‘Bello Tschau!’ Das Lied handelt vom Tod eines Partisanen. Durch die Übersetzung durch Hannes Wader wird das Lied schnell auch unter Deutschen bekannt!

Chor aus Schülern u. Schülerinnen der privaten Musikschaule OPUS aus Prenzlau singt: Ol’ Man-’R-if-er und ‘Over the ‘Ar-in-Bow’/male Degen, begonnen wird dabei mit intensiven Entspannungs- und Dehnübungen, u.a. von Schulterbereichen und Kaumuskeln.

‘Eine Spezialoperation, jedoch kein Krieg!’, laut selbst dem russischem Präsidenten! 

Inhaltlich liegt er damit vielleicht sogar richtiger als andere!

“Michelle wirkt so jung, mit jedem Tag wirkt sie jünger!” (Barack Obama)

Und auch er hätte dann damit recht!

*Genaue Gründe warum auch der russische Präsident das so tut führt er keine an! Das muss man so auch erst gar nicht: der Begriff erklärt sich quasi von alleine! Vor allem liest man folgenden Liederausschnitt, er stammt aus auch dem amerikanischen Liederschatz:

Ol' man river. That ol' man river. He don't say nothin' But he must know somethin' Cause he just keeps rollin'.

... tired of livin', but I'm scared of dyin'!

getting weary, sick of trying!

Get drunk And you land in jail.

Deutschland steht in direkter Gefahr eines gemeinsam durchgeführten neuen Großangriffes seitens der Allianz oder früheren Allierten! 

Man will schlicht schon viel früher durch einen gemachte Landgewinne von sich für alle Zeiten auf diese Weise absichern!  Damit aber gibt man sich längst nicht bei ihr zufrieden, in Zukunft hofft man auf auch noch weitere! Fast immer aber passiert das nur sehr verdeckt! 

*Unverkennbar auch die beständigen Tricks aus der gemeinsam dafür bereitgehaltenen Vorrats- oder Schatzkiste, zu denen man erneut  dann wieder auch greift, und selbst Diplomaten direkter Nachbar-Staaten innerhalb Europas tun das so dann erneut wieder auch, gemeinsam mit dann wieder zum Teil sehr weit wegliegenden auch. Nie aber wird direkt darüber gesprochen, trifft man dabei durch Zufall vielleicht einmal sogar erneut auch auf einen der heutigen Bewohner Deutschlands und/oder den heutigen Deutschen mit auch dessen Ehefrau!

Als Haupt-Beweggrund dafür sucht man sich ausgerechnet! wiederholt  angeblich sehr schlechtes Verhalten des anderen aus früheres, man führt moralische Gründe an dafür, warum man das so kann und vielleicht sogar auch darf!!

“Erwin: Gefangener unter Hitler wie Stalin!!”

Erwin, mit Nachnamen Jörris, trat mit 16 dem Jugendbund der Kommunisten Deutschlands bei 1928. 1932 verbreitete er Flugblätter: ‘Hitler bedeutet (automatisch) Krieg! Er wurde dann 1933 verhaftet, kam in Untersuchungshaft, wurde 1934 entlassen, floh und imigrierte danach in die Sowjetunion, wobei ihm die inzwischen illegale KPD Deutschlands half, womöglich tat er es sogar eigens in deren Auftrag. *Jedenfalls laut Inhalten dieses Plakates, welches ich heute an einer Berliner Häuserwand erneut hängend vorfand und anschließend darin las. (Im Gebäude selber befanden sich ein Lokal und Begegnungsstätte der oder von extremen alternativen Linken, so war u.a. auch die Frontex erkennbar hier sehr unbeliebt, Feministinnen hielten in ihm ihre regelmäßigen Treffen ab oder waren hier ebenfalls willkommen, genauso wie Leute, die irgendwann selber auch nach Europa emigriert waren, frühere Flüchtlinge also, gegen Nazis hatte man klar etwas und gegen deren Mitanwesenheit vielleicht in dem Lokal, jedenfalls laut ein paar auch noch weiteren Fensteraushängen und deren Inhaltenl!! Man könnte also sagen, es waren heutige Nachfahren von Kommunisten, wenn auch ein paar sehr moderne mit gelegentlicher geäußerter Kritik am bestehenden System sogar auch selber, sogar härscherer, welche in ihm verkehrten und die es wohl auch gemeinsam als solches betrieben! Fans oder Anhänger der Kommune!)

“In der Folge lernte Erwin dann die stalinistischen Schauprozesse kennen und glaubte sich von auch ihnen distanzieren zu müssen! Darauf schickte man ihn nach Swerdlowsk in einen Betrieb, er sollte sich dort bewähren”.

(*Von Herbert Wehner erhielt er dann den Vorwurf, er habe dem Nationalsozialismus selber nicht genug Widerstand entgegengebracht, was wohl aber erst später so geschah, auch das ist im Plakat so mitenthalten, es informiert uns auch darüber.)

1937 erfolgte dann die nächste Verhaftung, diesmal durch das NKWD, der ihm gemachte Vorwurf lautete, er sei heimlicher Spion der Trotzkisten, Erwin kam ins Gefängnis von Lubjanka!!

Im April 1938 erfolgte dann seine Ausweisung durch die Sowjetunion zurück ins Deutsche Reich. Erwin wurde direkt der Gestapo übergeben! Diesmal blieb er bis Februar 1939 inhaftiert.

1940 dann seine plötzliche Einberufung zur Wehrmacht!

Er war dann bis 1941 an der Ostfront, geriet aber in sowjetische Gefangenschaft, nach Kriegsende wurde er nach Ost-Berlin entlassen, dort aber sehr schnell wieder verhaftet durch die frühere sowjetische Geheimpolizei! Sein genauer Verbleib danach ist etwas unklar, es geht aus dem Papier nicht einwandfrei hervor, die Rede aber ist von Schönhausen in Berlin, erst 1950 wird er dann zu 25 Jahren Zwangsarbeit in Sibirien durch einen Richter verurteilt! Er war dann in den Lagern Workuta und Retsch, wurde 1955 im Zuge der “Heimkehr der 10.000″ erneut nach Ost-Berlin entlassen, kehrte dorthin zurück!

“Deine übergroße Schnauze sie soll dir in Sibirien zufrieren!!” (der damalige Richter zu ihm, so das Plakat)

#film actors #pop singers and bands #Folklore #die Lorelei #The Rhine #German Rhine #deutschlands verlorengegangene Ostgebiete #Böhmen #Mähren #Königsberg #Ostpommern #Riesengebirge #das Sudetenland #die Gebietserweiterung oder Expansion #Honeckers Brief an die Äthopier #DDR #Honecker in Afrika #Honecker erwähnt das Schicksal Rhodesiens und Simbabwes #die Camp David Vereinbarungen #German Lagers #König David #Erwin Jörris #Erwin Jöris Verhaftet unter Hitler wie Stalin!

[decolonize-the-left]

Sound familiar?

"After the First World War, the map of Europe was re-drawn and several new countries were formed. As a result of this, three million Germans found themselves now living in part of Czechoslovakia.

When Adolf Hitler came to power, he wanted to unite all Germans into one nation.

In September 1938 he turned his attention to the three million Germans living in part of Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland. Sudeten Germans began protests and provoked violence from the Czech police. Hitler claimed that 300 Sudeten Germans had been killed. This was not actually the case, but Hitler used it as an excuse to place German troops along the Czech border.

Things that happened in September 1938:

Sept 7. On instructions from Hitler, Konrad Henlein broke off negotiations with the Czech government. Allegations of Czech police brutality at Moravská Ostrava were used as an excuse

Sept 7. A famously controversial editorial appeared in The Times which recommended giving Hitler what he wanted because "the advantages to Czechoslovakia of becoming a homogenous State might conceivably outweigh the obvious disadvantages of losing the Sudeten German districts of the borderland."

Sept 13. French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier asked Neville Chamberlain (leader of Czechoslovakia) to make the best deal he could with Hitler.

Sept 20. The Czechoslovak government rejected the Anglo-French proposal in a note explaining that acceptance would mean that Czechoslovakia would be put "sooner or later under the complete domination of Germany."

Sept 20. Hitler met with the Polish ambassador Józef Lipski and told him that Germany would support Poland in a conflict with Czechoslovakia over Teschen. Hitler also said he was considering shipping Europe's Jews to a colony (Israel, a colony for Europe's displaced Jewish population would be established in 1948) and expressed hope that Poland would cooperate with such a plan. Lipski replied that if Hitler could solve the Jewish question, the Poles would build a monument to him in Warsaw

September 26. In the Berlin Sportpalast, Hitler made a speech threatening Czechoslovakia with war. "My patience is exhausted", Hitler declared. "If Beneš does not want peace we will have to take matters into our own hands.

Sept 27th. The French government announced that France would not enter a war purely over Czechoslovakia. Neville Chamberlain gave a radio address saying, "However much we may sympathize with a small nation confronted by a big and powerful neighbor, we cannot in all circumstances undertake to involve the whole British Empire in a war simply on her account. If we have to fight it must be on larger issues than that

Sept 27. President Franklin Roosevelt writes to German Chancellor Adolf Hitler regarding the threat of war in Europe. The German chancellor had been threatening to invade the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia and, in the letter, his second to Hitler in as many days, Roosevelt reiterated the need to find a peaceful resolution to the issue.

Sept 29. German Führer Adolf Hitler, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier and Italian Duce Benito Mussolini met in Munich to settle the Sudetenland crisis. Czechoslovakia was not invited, neither was the Soviet Union.

Sept 30. Munich Agreement: At 1 a.m., the four powers at Munich agreed that Czechoslovakia would cede the Sudetenland to Germany by October 10. The territorial integrity of the rest of Czechoslovakia was guaranteed by all signatories. Neville Chamberlain flew back to Britain and declared "peace for our time"

I think we all deeply need to reconsider what we were taught about WW2. The allies who "saved" everyone from Hitler's camps are also the Same People who allowed him to get so much power in the first place.

Closer looks at these histories show they had their own motives for allowing it just like Biden does today. FDR & Biden are actually mirroring each other really well considering they're separated by time and death. FDR was pleading and asking Hitler to please stop doing war until Pearl Harbor cuz they had a good relationship like that :) Yeah, so all he really did up to that point was play arms dealer for France and Britain because he didn't wanna jeopardize his relationship with Germany by Directly getting involved.

Yeah.

See what I said about it sounding familiar?

And can I remind y'all that Hitler didn't start by saying he hated Jewish people. No.

You know what his plan was at first? A "Greater Germany" that would unify Germans across the territories that Germany was forced to concede after WW1.

.....Y'all remember this image?

Fascists and dictators and warmongers come in all shapes, sizes and belief systems, but you can always recognize a Fascist Supremacist by the thinly veiled expansion genocide being done in the name of their people. And the guys who help them are always trying to gaslight you about how things are "It's not that bad"

All this to say: get the fuck up and make sure history doesn't keep repeating itself because it's starting to

Y'all are sitting there asking how the Holocaust could happen and Palestinians are asking why nobody is fucking doing anything.

These are related questions.

Get up and do something. Yeah it is crazy that you're going to work when a genocide is happening...so don't!!! So many people are scared of losing their comfort because of what MIGHT happen if it's for nothing, but I'm BEGGING y'all to ask yourselves what headlines you'd rather read about the 1930's-40's and make those real.

"Mob storms parliament, stops the Munich Agreement," "Citizens of (anywhere) create Organization to protect Jewish, Black, and Homosexual peers in opposition to state sponsored violence. Quote: These are my neighbors and Nazis can't have them." "Meet the University Students who chased Nazis off campus." "'We Couldn't Do Nothing' say arrested group of women who beat a Gestapo officer with a clothing iron." "'If they can't afford us, they can't afford war': How global strikes and the lack of scabs are changing the the future of war" "'I'm afraid to Sleep' American Nazis restless after serial arsonist publishes their addresses in the paper"

Germans literally tried to assassinate Hitler. Like several times. We need to step it up.

There are SO MANY things we can do if we can just agree that none of us will be doing them alone! You are NOT powerless to stop this war just because you aren't in Palestine!!!

#i just keep looking at back then and now and everything that led up to ww2 snd Hitler's ideologieies and its like... O H f u c k #ww2 #world history #world war #Nazis #decolstw #palestine #gaza #germany #czechoslovakia #colonization #settler colonialism #leftist #neo colonialism #direct action #biden #capitalism #free palestine

[haikuckuck]

A dear dove and" rock pigeon"( back to the roots;-))

Because this photo of mine was liked and reblogged mostly in the short time i am in tumblr:

I am not an expert and not specialized in taking doves , pigeons...i am german ,my english is not very good,but let me say: i can understand if some people dont like what pigeons do or hate the birds at all or in towns etc ..

In german they are called:" Ratten der Luefte",rats in the air,i firstly thought ,they would be called: pigs of the air,and the term pig is contained in "pigeons".

But this was an Error of mine and i am not of this opinion,i love to make pictures of them mostly in our swabian town.

But i can comprehend if people dont like them..

My grandfather had doves, pigeons in the houses top,roof ( i really dont know the difference of the both terms,in German only is" Taube ", Turteltauben,Ringeltauben,Felsentauben,Haustauben,Stadttaube,Brieftaube,Friedenstaube usw.)

I remind me of visits in the near of Heilbronn,when i was 5 or 6 years old ,to our grandparents,and surely my grandma cooked,fried sometimes the meat,breasts,of doves, pigeons..( if i got this to eat,i dont remember)

Those grandparents came from Bohemia, Sudetenland,and had to flee away from this German Gau at the end of world war2.and firstly stranded in the region of Heilbronn.

From grandma i got the love to taste of mushrooms,the woods and when i was as a child on visit ,she always gave sugar into the not sour but sweetened green cabbage letuce salad!! Fresh from garden. I love sweetand sour!

#pigeon #water #stone #reflections

[girlactionfigure]

THURSDAY HERO: Nicholas Winton 

The British Schindler: Nicholas Winton

He saved 669 children.

Nicholas Winton was a young British stockbroker who rescued 669 Czech Jewish children from being sent to Nazi death camps. He never told anybody of his heroism, and the story only came out 50 years later after his wife found an old briefcase in the attic containing lists of children he’d saved.

Nicholas was a 29 year old clerk at the London stock exchange getting ready for a ski trip to Switzerland when he received an urgent call from his friend Martin Blake. Known to be passionately opposed to Nazism, Martin urged Nicholas to cancel his vacation and come to Prague immediately. He told Nicolas, “I have a most interesting assignment and I need your help. Don’t bother bringing your skis.”

It is a testament to Nicolas’ sterling character and strong moral compass that he didn’t waver for a moment. It was an easy decision to sacrifice his fun and relaxing ski trip and instead travel to a dangerous place on a mysterious mission.

Two months earlier, in October 1938, Nazi Germany had annexed the Sudetenland It was clear that the Nazis would soon occupy all of Czechoslovakia. When he reached Prague, Nicholas was shocked by the huge influx of refugees fleeing from the Nazis. In early November, the Kristallnacht pogrom occurred in Germany and Austria. Jews were killed in the street and hundreds of synagogues burned down, as well as Jewish-owned businesses. This horrifying event shocked the Jewish community in eastern Europe, and thousands were now desperate to flee.

Born to Jewish parents, Nicholas was actually Jewish himself. However, his parents changed their name from Wertheim and converted to Christianity before he was born. Nicholas was baptized and raised as a Christian, and he didn’t consider himself Jewish (although was doubtless aware that Hitler would.)

In Prague, organizations were springing up to help sick and elderly refugees, but Nicholas noticed that nobody was trying to help the children. In his words, “I found out that the children of refugees and other groups of people who were enemies of Hitler weren’t being looked after. I decided to try to get permits to Britain for them. I found out that the conditions which were laid down for bringing in a child were chiefly that you had a family that was willing and able to look after the child, and fifty pounds, which was quite a large sum of money in those days, that was to be deposited at the Home Office. The situation was heartbreaking. Many of the refugees hadn’t the price of a meal. Some of the mothers tried desperately to get money to buy food for themselves and their children. The parents desperately wanted at least to get their children to safety when they couldn’t manage to get visas for the whole family. I began to realize what suffering there is when armies start to march.”

Nicholas knew something had to be done, and he decided to be the one to do it. He later remembered, “Everybody in Prague said, ‘Look, there is no organization in Prague to deal with refugee children, nobody will let the children go on their own, but if you want to have a go, have a go.’ And I think there is nothing that can’t be done if it is fundamentally reasonable.”

Nicholas decided to find homes for the children in the UK, where they would be safe. He set up a command center in his hotel room in Wenceslas Square and his first step was to contact the refugee offices of different national governments and see how many children they could accept. Only two countries agreed to take any Jewish children: Sweden and Great Britain, which pledged to accept all children under age 18 as long as they had homes and fifty pounds to pay for their trip home.

With this green light from Great Britain, Nicholas did everything possible to find homes for the children. He returned to London and did much of the planning from there, which enabled him to continue working at the Stock Exchange and soliciting funds from other bankers to pay for his work with the refugees. Winton needed a large amount of money to pay for transportation costs, foster homes, and many other necessities such as food and medicine.

Nicholas placed ads in newspapers large and small all over Great Britain, as well as in hundreds of church and synagogue newsletters. Knowing he had to play on people’s emotions to convince them to open their home to young strangers who didn’t even speak English, Nicholas printed flyers with pictures of children seeking refuge. He was tireless in his efforts and persuaded an incredible number of heroic Brits to welcome the traumatized young refugees into their homes and hearts.

The office in Wenceslas Square was manned by fellow Brit Trevor Chadwick. Every day terrified parents came in and begged him to find temporary homes for their children. Despite Nicholas’ success in finding places for the kids to stay, British and German government bureaucrats made things difficult, demanding multiple forms and documents. Nicholas said, “Officials at the Home Office worked very slowly with the entry visas. We went to them urgently asking for permits, only to be told languidly, ‘Why rush, old boy? Nothing will happen in Europe.’ This was a few months before the war broke out. So we forged the Home Office entry permits.”

The first transport of children boarded airplanes in Prague which took them to Britain. Nicholas organized an amazing seven more transports, all of them by train, and then boat across the English Channel. The children met their foster families at the train station and Winton took great care in making the matches between children and foster parents.

The children’s transport organized by Nicholas Winton was similar to the later, larger Kindertransport operation, but specifically for Czech Jewish children. Nicholas saved an astounding 669 children on eight transports. Tragically, the largest transport of all was scheduled for September 1, 1939 – but on that day, Hitler invaded Poland and all borders were closed by Germany. Winton was haunted for decades by the remembrance of the 250 children he last saw boarding the train. “Within hours of the announcement, the train disappeared. None of the 250 children aboard was seen again. We had 250 families waiting at Liverpool Street that day in vain. If the train had been a day earlier, it would have come through. Not a single one of those children was heard of again, which is an awful feeling.”

Nicholas joined the British military and spent the rest of the war serving as a pilot in the Royal Air Force, attaining the rank of Flight Lieutenant. After the war, Nicholas worked for the International Refugee Organization in Paris, where he met and married Grete Gjelstrup, a Danish secretary. They moved to Maidenhead, in Great Britain, and had three children. Their youngest child, Robin, had Down Syndrome, and at that time children with the condition were usually sent to institutions. However Nicholas and Grete wouldn’t consider it and instead kept their son at home with the family. Tragically, Robin died of meningitis the day before his sixth birthday. Nicholas was devastated by the loss, and became an active volunteer with Mencap, a charity to help people with Down Syndrome and other developmental delays. He remained involved in Mencap for over fifty years.

Humble – and perhaps traumatized by the children on the train he wasn’t able to save – Nicholas rarely talked about his wartime heroism and his own family didn’t know the details. It was only in 1988 that Nicholas Winton became widely known. His wife found an old notebook of his containing lists of the children he saved. Working with a Holocaust researcher, she tracked down some of the children and located eighty of them still living in Britain. These grown children, some with grandchildren, found out for the first time who had saved them.

The BBC television show called That’s Life! invited Nicholas to the filming an episode that became one of the most emotional clips in TV history. With Nicholas in the audience, the host told his story, including photos and details about some of the children he’d saved. Then she the told Nicholas that one of those children was the woman in the seat next to him! They embraced, teary eyed, and the host announced there were more grown children in the audience as well. She asked everybody who owed their life to Nicholas Winton to stand up. The entire audience stood up, as Nicholas sat stunned, wiping away the tears.

After that, Nicholas was showered with honors, including a knighthood for services to humanity. Known as the British Schindler, he met the Queen multiple times and received the Pride of Britain Award for Lifetime Achievement, both for saving refugee children and working with Mencap to improve the lives of people with cognitive differences. There are multiple statues of him in Prague and the UK, and his story was the subject of three films.

Nicholas Winton died in Britain in July 2015, at age 106. Today there are tens of thousands of people who owe their lives to Nicholas Winton.

For saving hundreds of Jewish children, we honor Nicholas Winton as this week’s Thursday Hero.

#Thursday Hero

[mapsontheweb]

Germany's territorial expansions from 1935 to the start of World War 2

🟥 : Germany

🟧 : Austria: the Anschulss 1938

🟨 : Sudetenland, annexed 1938

⬜️ : Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia 1939

🟪 : Saarland, incorporared in 1935

🟫 : Memel district 1939

by summusrexetruriae

#maps #summusrexetruriae #igsourced #germany #territorial changes #20th century