Nicholas Winton: When Home Means Rescue

In this discussion, we will meet people whose lives were quite literally changed by a single act: Nicholas Winton’s rescue trains. And we will ask what his legacy means today – at a time when it is all too easy to return to labels, simple judgments, and dividing the world into “us” and “them”.

Nick Winton will come to Brno with the story of his father and his decision not to stand aside. Joining him will be two of the so-called “Winton children”, Eva Paddock and Milena Grenfell-Baines – women who, as children, left Prague for safety and have carried throughout their lives the experience of a lost home, a divided family, and a chance that came at the last moment. Their testimony is more than a recollection. It is a living reminder of how thin the line can be between rescue and catastrophe – and how much depends on whether someone chooses to act.

And because this programme takes place in a space where different family histories meet, we will also explore a second, more difficult dimension: how to seek reconciliation where the past has become an inheritance of “guilt” and “wrong” across generations. We will talk about why history is rarely black and white – and why it does not help when we replace individual responsibility with a collective label, even if it is applied to “the other side”. Reconciliation does not begin with forgetting, but with being able to see the person even where we have learned to see only an enemy.

The programme takes place as part of the Gathering of the Sudeten German Landsmannschaft.

The event has been organised in cooperation with the Ackermann-Gemeinde, with the support of the Czech-German Future Fund.

Advance reservation is required. Please note that your reservation does not guarantee a seat; it grants access to the BVV premises.