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The World’s Laura Lynch reports on a reunion of Holocaust survivors in London today. Participants were among more than 600 Jewish children who were transported to safety thanks to the efforts of a British stockbroker… a man who is now 100 years old.

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MARCO WERMAN: Throughout Europe this week there were events marking the 70^th anniversary of the start of World War II. Perhaps one of the most poignant commemorations took place today in London. It recreated the arrival in Britain of hundreds of Jewish children back in 1939. Those children, now senior citizens, were reunited with the British man they credit as their savior. The World’s Laura Lynch has more.

LAURA LYNCH: A vintage steam train pulled out of Prague three days ago carrying two dozen men and women who made this same trip as boys and girls seven decades ago. With the Nazi’s occupying what was then Czechoslovakia their parents made the heart-rending decision to send them away. Lisa Midwinter was just three years old when she boarded the train with her brother. This trip has given her a vivid sense of the drama of those few days.

LISA MIDWINTER: It’s been a very, very, very emotional journey and it’s made me realize how long we were on the train when these days you can just fly over. We’ve made a new friend and I’ve met the lady who evidently looked after me on the journey and played with me and made it so much easier.

LYNCH: Eight trains in all made it to London thanks to the quiet heroics of a young clerk at the London Stock Exchange. Twenty-nine-year-old Nicholas Winton was set to go skiing in Switzerland in 1938 when a friend working at the British embassy in Prague persuaded him to come to see the swelling numbers of refugees – most of them Jewish. The site propelled Winton into action. He persuaded the British government to let them in; raised funds; organized foster homes; and arranged for the trains. Ruth Humphreys, then 14 years old, has crystal-clear memories of what it was like to leave her parents behind.

RUTH HUMPHREYS: Well lots of sadness, lots of crying, lots of unhappiness, lots of fear, and just very, very sad. I remember just hanging on to my sister. I was lucky I had my sister with me.

LYNCH: Eve Leadbeater was eight when she waved goodbye to her mother, father, and older brother. She didn’t hear they had died until the end of the war.

EVE LEADBEATER: I used to fantasize [CRYING] that after the war we would all meet again. Made up little stories of how we would recognize each other; particularly my brother who I adored. It didn’t happen.

LYNCH: But today tears eventually gave way to smiles and laughter as the train pulled into Liverpool Street Station in London.

[MUSIC]

Seventy years ago the children stood on the platform in near silence waiting to find out who would take them in. Today it was very nearly a party and Eva Beata was savoring every moment.

EVA BEATA: A mixture of sadness, emotion, and positive friendship and joy and still being alive.

LYNCH: Watching over it all was the man who made it all happen. One hundred years old now, Nicholas Winton was showered with flowers, kisses, and hugs from those who call themselves “Nicki’s Children.”

NICHOLAS WINTON: The trouble 70 years ago was getting them together with the people who were going to look after them. I’ve got no responsibility this time.

LYNCH: Winton saved the lives of 669 children over the months leading up to the war but he admits one thing still haunts him. The largest evacuation train was supposed to depart Prague on September the 3^rd – the day Britain declared war on Germany. That train never left. Almost none of the 250 children on board survived the war. That makes today’s reunion bittersweet for the man they call Britain’s Oskar Schindler and for the children he saved. For The World I’m Laura Lynch in London.

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