I prevaricated. [Update 1] Do you congratulate someone who has avoided the limelight? Or do you risk providing it? In the end, if he didn’t want it, he should have avoided it more successfully. Anyway, many happy returns to him.
[Update 1] JQ says I vacillated. He’s right.
{ 4 comments }
Tom Hurka 05.19.09 at 9:13 pm
My mother and her younger brother (both Jewish) left Czechoslovakia for Britain in 1939, their parents staying behind and not surviving the war. My mother was 18, her brother younger. They probably weren’t in the Kindertransport — I never heard mention of it — but they could have been. Thanks, Harry, for the link.
vivian 05.20.09 at 1:04 am
Part of putting people like Winton in the limelight is the benefit to the rest of us. Publicly declaring that supererogatory goodness, preventing further war crimes by helping the targets escape, is in fact, good, excellent, desirable and worthy of imitating. We get a little piece of his reflected glory, and hopefully this motivates us to get outraged at war crimes committed in our names. So good to mention it to us, and good wishes to Mr. Winton.
Barbara Winton 05.20.09 at 11:26 am
Dear Tom,
You can check whether your mother and uncle were on the Czech transport by going to this link http://www.just-powell.co.uk/winton/index.htm
It contains names of those who were on these transports who have not made contact with anyone about it yet.
Regards
Barbara Winton
Tom Hurka 05.21.09 at 9:41 pm
Dear Barbara,
Many thanks for that link. It looks as if my uncle, Felix Heller, is on the list. He joined a Czech unit in the RAF later in the war and was lost over the ocean flying a mission. As I said, my mother was 18 and therefore too old to be on the list. But I never heard many details about my uncle — many thanks for this.
Tom
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