Re-living historic WWII train journey

Video here

A steam train has arrived in London carrying a group of people who escaped the Holocaust thanks to a British former stockbroker. The journey was commemorating the transport from Prague of more than 600 children, most of them Jewish, who fled the outbreak of war in 1939.

A vintage train carrying 170 of them was greeted at Liverpool Street by Sir Nicholas Winton, (pictured, above) the man who organised the trains.

BBC

Survivors gather to pay tribute to 'British Schindler'

Nicholas Winton rescued 669 children from the Nazis. Yesterday 22 of them returned to Prague to thank him

Watching a steam train full of waving passengers pull out of Prague station yesterday, the Meisl brothers recalled the wartime journey that had changed their lives forever. Peter Meisl was evacuated from Czechoslovakia by a British stockbroker, Nicholas Winton, on the eve of the Second World War along with 668 other children, 22 of whom were on board the commemorative train yesterday as it left Prague in a cloud of steam to begin its four-day trip to London.

Czechoslovakia's Nazi occupiers declared Peter's brother Jiri too old for evacuation and, as Peter lived out the war quietly in Wales, Jiri and their parents were forced on to a prison train and sent to Auschwitz. Their father, like the relatives of scores of "Winton's Children", perished there.

The Meisls' story is just one of dozens of extraordinary tales from the now elderly men and women who owe their lives to Winton. As the former evacuees gathered in Prague for their train journey, they hailed his compassion and determination, celebrated their survival and mourned for those children that were not able to escape.

In December 1938, 29-year-old Winton was packing for a skiing holiday in Switzerland when his would-be holiday companion told him to come urgently to Czechoslovakia instead. Adolf Hitler's forces had occupied the country's Sudetenland, and Winton was appalled to see the conditions in which the refugees were living. In other parts of central Europe, "kindertransporten" were already evacuating children, but Czechoslovakia had no such programme.

Winton immediately started raising money and organising trains to save the children, and on his return to Britain began finding homes and organising visas for them, all while holding down his day job in London. Word of Winton's audacious plan quickly spread throughout Prague. When he returned to the Czech capital and set up office in his hotel room on Wenceslas Square, long queues soon formed outside of parents who would plead with him to take their children to Britain.

"Those parents were desperate – it was heartbreaking to listen to their stories," Winton, now Sir Nicholas Winton, recalled in a 2007 interview. "They knew all too well what their fate was likely to be. Their first thought was for the little ones. Never themselves. Practically all those parents perished in the camps."

Between March and August 1939, eight Winton trains carried 669 children – most of them Jewish – to safety in Britain. Seventy years on, as the steam train whistled its impending departure, they recalled parents telling them that they were just going on a short holiday, the excitement of the older children and the bewilderment of the younger ones. They remembered their strange first impressions of Britain, spitting out a first sip of milky tea and their wonder at white sliced bread.

"Our parents put a brave face on things, and of course they didn't know that they wouldn't see their children again," said Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines, who was sent to a family in Lancashire and still lives in Preston. "It is very unreal and very emotional to be here today. It's like a film set," she said, as Czech government ministers prepared to unveil a statue to Sir Nicholas.

The former evacuees also remembered how a ninth train had been due to leave Prague on 1 September 1939 and how, after war broke out, the Nazis stopped it leaving the city. Most of the 250 children on board were never seen again. "My brother was supposed to be on that train. He and my parents were all killed," said Eve Leadbeater, who lives in Nottingham, where she was taken in by a teacher at the age of eight. "Being in Prague again brings a whole mix of emotions: sadness at what happened and joy at being alive. What Nicholas Winton did was a great example of what one man with compassion and determination can do."

The scale of Sir Nicholas's achievements is almost matched by his reticence to discuss them. "I was never really in danger," he has said. "I simply saw a need and I filled it. I wasn't anyone special. I just saw what was going on and did what I could to help."

He did not even tell his wife about his exploits until the late 1980s, when she found a scrapbook of clippings in the attic of their home in Maidenhead. The scrapbook was passed to a Jewish historian and, before long, he was being introduced to some of the people he had saved, on Esther Rantzen's That's Life.

Having previously been awarded only the Freedom of Maidenhead, Winton was now described as "Britain's Oscar Schindler" and the "Pied Piper of Prague" and he was knighted in 2003. Four years later, the Czech Republic gave him its highest honour and nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize.

After unveiling a statue of Winton with two children at Prague station, Barbara Winton said that her father was still an uncompromising man of action – even at 100 years old. "What he did 70 years ago is totally in keeping with how he is now. He believes that, if something needs to be done, you must do it. Looking back doesn't get people anywhere. But if this event makes people more aware of what we should be doing now, then he will see it as a good thing."

Sir Nicholas intends to be at Liverpool Street Station in London on Saturday, when the train arrives from Prague. "What will I say when I see Nicholas?" said Eve Leadbeater as she boarded the train. "I will say 'thank you'. What else is there to say?"

Independent

Jan Kucera - Another victim of neo-nazis

About one thousand people gathered on 19 January, 2008 in Pilsen, Czech Republic, to commemorate the victims of nazi terror: 66 years ago, Jews from Pilsen were deported to concentration camps, but nobody knew that another victim of current neo-nazi violence is at the very same time fighting for his life in a hospital.

On 18 January in Pribram, a town 50 km south-west of Prague, 20-year-old neo-nazi Jiri Fous stabbed 18-year-old Jan Kucera in the groin and back about an hour to midnight. Before this attack, young local neo-nazis were provoking with nazi salutes and offending a group of young punks and antifascist skinheads, to which Jan belonged. Jan’s friends were trying to stop the bleeding from his femoral artery and called for an ambulance. Neither the paramedics nor Jan’s friends realized that Jan had also been stabbed in the back before it was too late. Jan lost massive amounts of blood and fell unconscious. He was rushed to a nearby hospital, but even though he was in the hands of professional doctors, he died on Sunday morning.

Jan Kucera was an antifascist skinhead from Pribram, and he was never afraid to express his opinions. In his Internet profile, he wrote: "I’m a normal boy and I consider myself a SHARP skinhead. I don’t care who my friends are - I don’t judge people because of their musical taste, their clothes or the colour of their skin. I judge people by what they do. Anybody can write to me. I hate nazis, the bourgeoisie, communists and similar scum! Antifascista Oi!"

He stood by his opinions until the very end. He will stay forever in the hearts of his family, friends, and all people with an antifascist attitude. Honour to his memory.

Antifa.cz

Neo-Nazis clash near Prague’s Jewish quarter

1,400 police deploy but fail to stop rival demonstrators from fighting

Neo-Nazis trying to march through the Jewish quarter of Prague on Saturday clashed with groups trying to stop them, and at least 80 people were arrested in outbreaks of violence around the capital.

Police seized weapons including a gas gun, axes and sticks as the extremists tried to reach the Jewish quarter, police spokesman Ladislav Bernasek said. At least six people, including one policeman, suffered head injuries, said Prague rescue service spokeswoman Jirina Ernestova.

The march was scheduled a day after the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the night in 1938 when the Nazis attacked synagogues and Jewish homes and businesses throughout Germany and parts of Austria. Authorities banned the march, and about 1,400 police were deployed in the capital, including riot police and officers on horses to prevent it. Equipped with armored vehicles and water cannons, they sealed off most of the historic Jewish quarter.

In a major clash downtown, a group of about two dozen neo-Nazis was attacked by people who said they were in the streets to prevent the march, Bernasek said. About 50 left-wing extremists attacked police with cobble stones in another area. In total about 80 people were detained around the city, including 10 German-speaking left-wing extremists armed with sticks, Bernasek said.

Jewish leaders and Czech politicians condemned the planned march as an insult to the victims of the Holocaust. Hundreds of Jews and others gathered in the historic Jewish quarter to commemorate the Nazi pogrom, protest the march and be ready, if it went ahead, to prevent it from going through the neighborhood.

We are here "to protest attempts of neo-Nazi groups to publicly promote anti-Semitic, racist and other abusive ideas," said Jiri Danicek, head of the federation of Jewish communities.

The march was organized by the Young National Democrats, which is linked to the National Resistance, a neo-Nazi group.

MSNBC

Czech Court cancels ban on neo-Nazi march through Jewish quarter

Prague City Hall has seen a setback in its efforts to prevent a group of neo-Nazis from marching through Prague’s Jewish Quarter on 10 November, the anniversary of the largest anti-Jewish pogrom in the Third Reich. The Prague Municipal Court has just cancelled a City Hall ban on the controversial planned march; however, officials are still hoping to block the far-right demonstration.

Prague City Hall banned a march organized by persons with close ties to a right-wing extremist group called Narodni Odpor, or National Resistance. The march is supposed to take place on 10th November which happens to be the 69th anniversary of the largest anti-Jewish pogrom in Nazi Germany, known as the Crystal Night. The organizers contested the City Hall’s decision, and on Monday, the ban was revoked by the Prague Municipal Court whose vice-chairman Jan Ryba explains the reasons.

“I cannot give you the exact reasons because they have not been published and delivered to the respective parties. I can only deduce in the following way: when an administrative court cancels an administrative decision without a public hearing, the court does so, according to the court rules for procedural flaws. In this particular case, only one thing could have happened: the City Hall’s decision was cancelled without a public hearing due to procedural flaws.”

Allegedly, the right-wing activists want to march to protest Czech involvement in the occupation of Iraq. Jiri Wolf, the spokesman for the Prague Municipality, says the authorities believe the true purpose of the march is different which is precisely why the City Hall insists on the ban.

“According to our expert reports on the basis of which the ban was imposed, the march does have extremist features. In the justification of the ban, we said clearly that the announced purpose of the march is directed at promoting hatred and intolerance towards people because of their nationality, origin and religious faith. These are the main reasons why we banned it and why we will insist on the ban.”

There is still time to revise the justification of the ban so that it cannot be successfully contested by the far-right grouping. In case this does not happen and the march does eventually take place, Jakub Roth, the vice-chairman of the Prague Jewish Community says they expect the authorities to prevent any possible clashes.

“We are cooperating closely with the city of Prague; we as the Jewish community of Prague fully rely on the ability of the Czech Republic and of Prague municipality to guarantee the safety and security of all its citizens. Jews all over the world celebrate Saturday as their holiday so even this Saturday there will be a religious convocation in the synagogues in Prague. As has previously been announced, there will be religious services held even in front of the synagogues in the Prague Jewish Quarter.”

And does the Jewish Community expect a larger number of people to take part on that Saturday’s worship, given the significance of the day?

“We always expect a large turn-out for days of worship from our members; this is an important day, and we expect that yes, many people will come. Again we rely on the authorities to make sure that no irresponsible events take place and we are and will be closely cooperating with them in this regard.”

Radio Prague