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Bratislava History Project


Richard Jones-Nerzic

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The extract from the film about Nicholas Winton is http://www.powerofgood.net/

I am hoping that some of you might be able to help out on the student forum as historical experts. In particular, I thought that the oral history specialists might be able to give some practical advice and maybe respond to student questions. I had a phonecall this evening from the British Ambassador who has confirmed that Winton will attend. We also have the names of about 10 of Winton's children and Slovak veterans. I will have at least 1hr 30 with them and three teams of student interviewers.

I also read today that

According to a 2001 New York Times article, Winton's parents were born Jewish, but he was baptized in the Church of England and used British church groups to find homes for nearly 650 children from Czechoslovakia - 25 to 30 of the children went to Sweden by air.
Maybe we could use our e-Help Swedish contacts to try to track these people down? That could make an interesting project in its own right.
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I also read today that
According to a 2001 New York Times article, Winton's parents were born Jewish, but he was baptized in the Church of England and used British church groups to find homes for nearly 650 children from Czechoslovakia - 25 to 30 of the children went to Sweden by air.

Maybe we could use our e-Help Swedish contacts to try to track these people down? That could make an interesting project in its own right.

I will see what I can find out...

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I also read today that
According to a 2001 New York Times article, Winton's parents were born Jewish, but he was baptized in the Church of England and used British church groups to find homes for nearly 650 children from Czechoslovakia - 25 to 30 of the children went to Sweden by air.

Maybe we could use our e-Help Swedish contacts to try to track these people down? That could make an interesting project in its own right.

I will see what I can find out...

I would have thought a couple of your students IB1(?) might be looking for an IA or EE idea. We could ask the questions on their behalf. The man is 100 years old next year and the knowledge about the Swedish connection might die with him. In addition, do you think you might be able to provide a little advice for students preparing for the oral history? I want to put an experts panel together to enable students to ask for advice.
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I am hoping that some of you might be able to help out on the student forum as historical experts. In particular, I thought that the oral history specialists might be able to give some practical advice and maybe respond to student questions. I had a phonecall this evening from the British Ambassador who has confirmed that Winton will attend. We also have the names of about 10 of Winton's children and Slovak veterans. I will have at least 1hr 30 with them and three teams of student interviewers.

Of course I will be willing to help with the Bratislava History Project. It is definitely a good idea to start a thread on the forum about carrying out interviews. However, for wider educational reasons, I would like it to be open to all. I would then give it a link from my home page. If your students are willing to abide by the forum rules of providing a photograph as a avatar and a biography they can be registered as members. If not, you could post the questions for them.

Creating pages for Spartacus websites is problematic. I have had requests from a lot of people to supply me with biographies. I have always rejected the offer as I want complete control over the material on the website. However, this is clearly a special case.

There are two ways we could do it. They could send me the material and I could construct the biography with the appropriate internal and external links and I would use their interviews in the sources section of the website. I would then add these to the “Children in the Second World War” section of my website.

Alternatively, they could also produce the biography and the sources and I could create a separate section on my website. However, they would need to follow the pattern of my web-pages.

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Thanks John

The students are ready to begin their research now. I have created a thread for them to pose general questions about doing oral history.

http://studenteducationforum.ipbhost.com/i...p?showtopic=635

Can you create a thread somewhere on the forum that is likely to be noticed by people likely to respond to their questions? Is there any chance that we could send out an email to all members asking for their contributions?

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Thanks John

The students are ready to begin their research now. I have created a thread for them to pose general questions about doing oral history.

http://studenteducationforum.ipbhost.com/i...p?showtopic=635

Can you create a thread somewhere on the forum that is likely to be noticed by people likely to respond to their questions? Is there any chance that we could send out an email to all members asking for their contributions?

I have started a thread here:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=13532

I am currently working on a page on Nicholas Winton. I have ordered a copy of Nicholas Winton and the Rescued Generation so it will eventually become a detailed page and soon replace the ot very good Wikipedia page as number one. I will make this part of the E-HELP project. The pages created by your students could be linked to this page.

I also intend to include details of your project to the page. Could you send me a detailed description of the project?

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I am currently working on a page on Nicholas Winton. I have ordered a copy of Nicholas Winton and the Rescued Generation so it will eventually become a detailed page and soon replace the ot very good Wikipedia page as number one.

You will find the first draft here:

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/CZwinton.htm

I will add to it when my copies of "Nicholas Winton and the Rescued Generation" and "Pearls of Childhood" arrive from Amazon.

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I would have thought a couple of your students IB1(?) might be looking for an IA or EE idea. We could ask the questions on their behalf. The man is 100 years old next year and the knowledge about the Swedish connection might die with him. In addition, do you think you might be able to provide a little advice for students preparing for the oral history? I want to put an experts panel together to enable students to ask for advice.

Sorry - I have been very busy this last week but I will definitely ask my IB1 students about this. I will aslo see if I can get a hold of an old universite friend of mine, Ingrid Lomfors, who wrote her PhD about Jewish Children that came to Sweden right before WWII (from Germany). Her mom was one of these children (but I have no idea if there is any connection with Winton).

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I would have thought a couple of your students IB1(?) might be looking for an IA or EE idea. We could ask the questions on their behalf. The man is 100 years old next year and the knowledge about the Swedish connection might die with him. In addition, do you think you might be able to provide a little advice for students preparing for the oral history? I want to put an experts panel together to enable students to ask for advice.

Sorry - I have been very busy this last week but I will definitely ask my IB1 students about this. I will aslo see if I can get a hold of an old universite friend of mine, Ingrid Lomfors, who wrote her PhD about Jewish Children that came to Sweden right before WWII (from Germany). Her mom was one of these children (but I have no idea if there is any connection with Winton).

According to my research 15 children were flown out via Sweden on 14th March, 1939. However, they were later moved to London. These were the first children rescued by Winton and the only ones to go by air. I suspect these were the ones with wealthy parents as at the time Winton was attempting to raise the funds to bring them to London. (The British government insisted that each child had to have £50 as warranty of the payment of the return ticket.) Over the next few months Winton arranged for 669 children to get out of the country on eight trains. A ninth train containing 250 children was due to leave Prague on 1st September, 1939. However, that day Adolf Hitler ordered the invasion of Poland and all borders controlled by Germany were closed. Winton later recalled that: "None of the 250 children on board was seen again. We had 250 families waiting at Liverpool Street that day in vain. If the train had been a day earlier, it would have come through. Not a single one of those children was heard of again."

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