There is a difference between passive goodness and active goodness. The latter is, in my opinion, the giving of one's time and energy in the alleviation of pain and suffering. It entrails going out, finding and helping those who are suffering and in danger, and not merely leading an exemplary life, in a purely passive way of doing no wrong.
Extract from a 1939 letter by Nicholas Winton
Nicholas Winton was a British citizen who decided to rescue children from Central Europe shortly before WWII. With few resources, he arranged for transport of 669 children from Prague to Britain. A documentary film "Nicholas Winton: The Power of Good," released in 2002 tells his story and won the Emmy Award for International film. Other films, both documentaries and fictionalized accounts, have told the story of "Winton's children."
The book is written as a sort of companion piece to the films and as a resource for talking about Nicholas Winton in the schools. Styled for a younger reader, there are parts of the book that are well written, but overall I think it lacks the persuasive quality to get a student to read it.
The best pieces of the book are the stories from Winton's children that survived. These are people who grew up in or near Czechoslovakia and were removed from there to England via Kindertransport. The tell their stories of life as a child, their parents and siblings, their home and lifestyle. They also tell of the journey, and the tearful parting from parents they may never see again, they all talked about how terrible the white bread was that they were given on a stop on their way to England - just the beginning of culture shock they would have in England. They also tell of how they were treated by the people they went to live with in England, who besides taking in these children had put up money as a guarantee of a return journey after the situation had changed back in Europe. Some returned, but most had nothing to return to.
Preceding this lovely chapter is the story of Matej Mináč's motivation for the film, book, etc. His mother was trying to reproduce her childhood photo album that was lost along with so many of her family in Europe. That led to a connection between Mináč and Winton. And the story of meeting and working with Winton, trying to understand how Winton succeeded in evacuating so many children to England on a shoestring budget. He found out first hand that Winton believes that anything can be accomplished, and even in his 80s he is a strong personality that expects and gets what he wants. He just happened to want to help children in Czechoslovakia, and so was able to help children right up until the day that war began.
Much of the book is given to documents honoring Winton and about the movie and schools where the movie and book are taught. The story of Winton and his children is inspiring, but the full story is not told in this book. I would have liked more about the people, the history and the times rather than filling the book with copies of official documents. I think I will look for the movies, though, to see if they tell me more about this remarkable man.
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