'One Life', a film for times when history repeats itself

@ElentirENG ES 4·06·2024 · 19:23 0

Yesterday I went to see "Winton's Children", a film that focuses on the story of a British man of Jewish and German origin, Nicholas Winton.

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Winton played a key role in the rescue of 669 children, most of them Jewish, who were taking refuge in Prague following the German annexation of the Sudetenland and before Hitler's full invasion of that country. . Thanks to her work, 6,000 people live today , both the rescued themselves and their descendants. To give us an idea, about 15,000 Czechoslovak Jewish children were sent to Nazi death camps. Less than 200 survived.

The most admirable thing about Winton's life is that he spent almost 50 years in absolute anonymity, without anyone knowing what he had done for those children, until his wife, a Dane, discovered the album that he kept with the photos of that rescue. It was she who had the initiative to make it known. Because of this, Winton went from being an anonymous person to being considered a national hero, being decorated by Queen Elizabeth II as a knight of the British Empire.

James Hawes has made a magnificent film about Winton's story, which would make for a television series, since he lived to be 106 years old. Anthony Hopkins , who is a great actor, plays the role of Winton in his old age, while Johnny Flynn plays the role of the protagonist in 1938.

To tell the truth, the film omits some very interesting moments in the life of Winton, who was a socialist but surely would not feel very identified with much of the current left, since he rejected the political appeasement with Hitler in 1938 and, in addition, she had a son with Down syndrome, Robin, who died young and whom her family preferred to care for at home instead of sending him to an institution, as was the custom in Great Britain. Brittany. His death greatly affected Winton and as a result she created a support organization for people with Down syndrome, Maidenhead Mencap, which still exists.

Another curious fact about Winton is that in 1940 he declared himself a conscientious objector, refusing to attend the call-up to the British Army, but he finally enlisted in the Royal Air Force and reached the rank as a flight lieutenant, remaining in the RAF until 1954.

Today, in Prague Station there is a statue dedicated to him. In reality, Winton was never at that station, but thanks to his work, many children who passed through there saved their lives. Half of the children he saved do not know to whom they owe their lives, since after the war they were not located when his whole story was discovered.

This film is a good reminder of what a single person is capable of doing and the importance of human life, as it recalls a phrase from the Jewish Talmud that I often remember: "Whoever destroys one soul, it is as if he had destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is as if he had saved an entire world."

During World War II, many anonymous people risked their lives to save Jews. In the case of Poland, this help was punished with the execution of the entire host family. Even today, Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust memorial center, continues to collect the stories of these anonymous people.

Films like this are very necessary at a time when history is repeating itself, which is what happens when we forget about it. In 1938 it was the Sudetenland and in 1939 came the German invasion of Czechoslovakia and Poland. In 2014 it was Donbas and, eight years later, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with Putin using arguments very similar to those of Hitler. At the same time, we see the monster of anti-Semitism appearing again in Europe, this time from the extreme left and Islamic fundamentalism. For this reason, and because it is a very good film, I recommend it to you. I leave you here with its announcement in English: