Sir Nicholas Winton: Google Doodle celebrates British Schindler’s 111th birthday

Google Doodle celebrates the 111th birthday of British Schindler and humanitarian Sir Nicholas Winton on May 19, 2020.

Who was Sir Nicholas Winton

Nicholas Winton was born Nicholas George Wertheim on 19 May 1909 in Hampstead, London, England. In 1938, with World War II approaching Europe, Winton was motivated to plan something for help.

Sir Nicholas Winton, MBE was a British humanitarian who built up an association to save kids in danger from Nazi Germany. Born to German-Jewish parents who had emigrated to Britain, Winton supervised the salvage of 669 kids, the greater part of them Jewish, from Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II. Nicholas Winton’s discovered homes for the kids and organized their protected section to Britain. This activity was later known as the Czech Kindertransport (German for “children’s transport”).

His work went unnoticed by the world for more than 50 years, the world remained unaware of what Winton had done – not even his wife. Until 1988 when Nicholas Winton was welcome to the BBC TV program That’s Life!, where he was brought together with a few of the children that he had saved. That all changed in 1988 when she found documents in their attic referencing the challenging salvages.

Then the British press praised him and named him the “British Schindler.”

In 2003, Winton was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for “services to humanity, in saving Jewish children from Nazi Germany occupied Czechoslovakia”.

On 28 October 2014, Nicholas Winton was awarded the highest respect of the Czech Republic, the Order of the White Lion (first class), by Czech President Miloš Zeman.

Winton died on 1 July 2015 in Slough from cardio-respiratory failure at 106 years old.

How is Google Doodle denoting his birthday?

On 19 May 2020, Google respected Nicholas Winton’s heritage and celebrated what might have been his 111th birthday celebration with a doodle.

Google has denoted Nicholas Winton’s 111th birthday with a Doodle indicating children at a train station. This represents the escape of Jewish kids from German-occupied Czechoslovakia just before World War II.

Today, Nicholas Winton’s story serves as a shining illustration of the power of selfless activity to realize mind-boggling change.