Anthony Hopkins in “One Life”: One man saves 669 children’s lives – culture

How a Briton saved the lives of hundreds of Jewish children: The drama “One Life” looks for hope in the horror of the Holocaust.

The English press calls him the “British Schindler”. Nicholas Winton made it possible for 669 Jewish children to escape from occupied Czechoslovakia during the Second World War – and thereby saved their lives.

Together with other helpers, he found the children foster parents in England, visas and organized special trains that took them from Prague through Germany to the Netherlands and finally to London.

Looking at virtue instead of perpetrators

If Winton is the “British Schindler,” is the film about him then the British “Schindler’s List”? The parallels are obvious, as are the differences. Winton acts from the safety of England before the outbreak of war. Although he suspected the horrors of the Holocaust, he did not have to experience them directly.

Legend:

The real Nicholas Winton at Prague train station in 1998. The rescue trains left there 60 years ago.

IMAGO / CTK Photo

“One Life” doesn’t want to shake things up, but rather show hope. He manages to tell a feel-good story in the midst of the greatest horror. The film is the exact opposite of the currently celebrated Holocaust film “The Zone of Interest”.

Where the former looks at the perpetrators and the horror, “One Life” looks for rescuers who give hope. Nicholas Winton would probably have supported this plan. Although the modest benefactor avoided any fuss made about his person, he also found it important that his story and that of the rescued children be passed on.

Meeting in front of the camera

That happened late: after remaining completely unknown for almost 50 years, Winton came into the public eye in 1988 because of a television appearance. In addition to Winton, the BBC program “That’s Life” also invited seven people who had once come to England on a Kindertransport. None of them had known about each other before. Winton unexpectedly met the people who owe their lives to him in front of the camera.

This encounter is a highly emotional TV moment that touches the heart. In doing so, she makes Winton a hero – something Winton didn’t want to be. And what is forgotten is that Winton did not act alone, but rather together with numerous helpers, some of whom exposed themselves to great danger in occupied Czechoslovakia.

Legend:

Anthony Hopkins as Nicholas Winton: Without knowing it, he sits among people who owe their lives to him.

Ascot Elite

“One Life” criticizes this hero worship, but it can’t do without it either. The touching encounter on TV is also the emotional climax of the film and essentially makes it possible. Because as deserving as Winton’s work undoubtedly was, it was not particularly visually strong. Winton made phone calls, wrote letters, and spoke at public offices.

Simple message, strong cast

The fact that “One Life” has nevertheless become a moving film is due to its main character and its main actors. Johnny Flynn plays the young Winton as a courageous optimist who sees it as his duty to help out of honest indignation.

The aged Winton is wonderfully played by Anthony Hopkins. He portrays him as a lovable, if slightly stubborn, pensioner. This stubbornness is the recipe for success with which he gets his humanitarian cause through the mills of an essentially inhumane bureaucracy.

The film proclaims that it takes the selfless commitment of ordinary people to make the world a better place. This message may be simple, but it is timeless.