In 1939, Nicholas Winton, a young stockbroker, saved the lives of 669 children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia by bringing them across Hitler’s Germany to his native Britain.

Today, there are more than 6,000 descendants of the children Winton saved—and all of them owe their lives to this gentle, unassuming hero, now over 100 years old. Twenty-six of the rescued children from all over the world are featured in the film, and many of them are taking Winton’s example and helping others.

Nicky’s FamilyConversation Starter by Ittay Flescher

“If something isn’t blatantly impossible, there must be a way

of doing it”– Nicholas Winton

Nicky’s Family is suitable for students in Years 7-12 undertaking:

• Humanities• History• Holocaust Studies• English• Jewish Studies• Religion and Society

Nicky’s Family is suitable for units on the following subjects:

• War and Peace• Change makers• Memory• Leadership• Justice

Discussion questions for young children1. What is your idea of a hero?

2. What makes Nicholas Winton a hero?

3. Do you think that anybody can be a hero? Why or Why not?

Discussion questions based on quotes“Nicholas Winton is so humble about what he did, he didn’t tell a soul about it for 50 years. This movie shows humanity’s worst and best. It shatters your soul and fills you with joy! It makes you feel agony and then gives you hope. It shows you arrogance and then grace, and above all, that the power of good cannot be snuffed out by evil and that true heroes really do exist.” – Dawn Underwood, Film Critic

4. What values can we learn from the film?

“’Nicky’s Family’ is a story of triumph. Triumph over tyrants. Triumph of freedom which means everything to many of us. The children saved and their descendants now number more than 5,700. These people, down to the young grandchildren, have been contributors to our society and have done amazing things. Many feel the need to emulate Sir Nicholas Winton in doing good works wherever they are needed.” – Kendra L Shrode, Mackinac Center for Public Policy

5. What do you think is the best way to honour Nicholas Winton?

“Family can have many meanings. For most of us it constitutes the people we live with - our parents, siblings and children. It can also have meaning to people that find they are more at home with their friends than with their biological family. But family can also consist of some very special people - people that put their own personal welfare aside for the greater good. And such is the case in ‘Nicky’s Family’.” – Kay Shackleton, film historian

6. What does your family mean to you?

Following the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the international community’s failure to intervene, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan asked the question: When does the international community intervene for the sake of protecting populations?

This led to a 2005 UN initiative called the responsibility to protect (R2P). It consists of a set of principles, based on the idea that sovereignty is not a right, but a responsibility. R2P focuses on preventing and halting four crimes: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing, which it places under the generic umbrella term of, Mass Atrocity Crimes. The Responsibility to Protect has three “pillars”.

1. A state has a responsibility to protect its population from mass atrocities;

2. The international community has a responsibility to assist the state to fulfil its primary responsibility;

3. If the state fails to protect its citizens from mass atrocities and peaceful measures have failed, the international community has the responsibility to intervene through coercive measures such as economic sanctions. Military intervention is considered the last resort.

Our Responsibility to Protect“There is a difference between passive

goodness and active goodness which is, in my opinion, the giving of one’s time and energy in the alleviation of pain and suffering. It entails

going out, finding and helping those in suffering and danger and not merely leading an exemplary life, in the purely passive

way of doing no wrong.”

– Nicholas Winton, from a letter written in 1939

As you are reading this page, it is quite likely that a mass atrocity is happening somewhere in the world. Some will be in the news, some will not. The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect applies an R2P lens to situations where populations are experiencing, or are at risk of, genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity or ethnic cleansing. For each population at risk they provide a background on the situation, an analysis of the factors putting populations at risk of mass atrocities, a timeline of the international response and a set of suggested necessary actions to protect populations and prevent further crimes.

See: http://www.globalr2p.org/regions/

After you have read this website, ask yourself:

1. Was I aware of these mass atrocities happening in my world at the moment? Why/Why not?

2. Who are the victims and perpetrators in these mass atrocities?

3. How can I learn more and raise awareness about these mass atrocities?

Ittay Flescher is a Jewish Educator in Melbourne and a fellow of Hebrew University’s Senior Educators Program.

‘Thou shalt not be a

victim, thou shalt not be a perpetrator,

but, above all, thou shalt not

be a bystander.’ Professor

Yehuda Bauer