By Kara Goodwin
The film One Life is based on the true story of British humanitarian Nicholas Winton, often called the “British Schindler” for his work (with other volunteers) to save 669 children from Prague at the beginning of World War II.
When the film came to Ottawa’s Bytowne Cinema in March, several members of our Through Their Eyes next generation group decided to see it together. While chatting in the lobby after the show, we met Richard Heller, the son of Kurt Hugo Heller, a Winton Kindertransport survivor. Richard’s father was 10 years old when his parents put him and a cousin on a train from Prague to the United Kingdom just before the beginning of World War II. Although our current group has a few Kindertransport descendants from Germany, and we know of Kindertransport descendants from Vienna, this was the first time we met someone connected to the Prague transports.
Richard has an amazing collection of photos and artifacts from his father’s journey. We sensed that this was no chance meeting, and we had to learn more. After a follow-up call, Richard agreed to meet our Through Their Eyes group to share his father’s story and his own incredible journey to uncover his family’s past and meet the people who saved his father’s life.
On April 25, we met at Westboro Books for an informal presentation by Richard followed by a group discussion. We were spellbound by Richard’s narrative which detailed how his father’s family fled to Prague from Sudetenland after it was annexed to the Germans and then, how they sent their only son, age 10, on a train to the United Kingdom. Young Kurt could only bring one suitcase, in which his parents packed photo albums crammed with snapshots of happier times, as a baby, and then as a young boy embraced by his proud parents and surrounded by love. Days before boarding the train, the family converted to Catholicism like countless other Jews facing the Nazi invasion. Becoming Catholic was also a requirement of Kurt’s sponsorship by the Barbican Mission to the Jews in the United Kingdom, where he was subsequently raised and educated. Kurt was fortunate to stay in touch with his cousin and a bachelor uncle whom the boys were able to visit. Both his parents were murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz.
Richard also shared the story of how he travelled with his father to the Czech Republic (previously Czechoslovakia) to learn more about his father’s past, how he met Sir Nicholas Winton (more than once) and connected with fellow Winton transport survivors including Vera Gissing (Diamantova) and Joe Schlesinger.
Also at our April 25 gathering, we were joined by another “match” that had been made by the Bytowne cinema as the cinema manager introduced us to Winton survivor descendant Claire Speed. Thanks to these connections, Richard and Claire were featured on CTV Morning Live to share their stories and connection to One Life, as well as the CBC radio program, All in a Day.
Kara Goodwin is a CHES director.