Nicholas Winton Memorial

The Nicholas Winton Memorial stands on Platform 1 of Prague's Main Railway Station (Praha hlavní nádraží), quietly commemorating one of the most remarkable rescue stories of the Holocaust era. Thousands of travellers pass it every day while waiting for their trains, and few realize what the modest bronze figures next to them actually represent.

Who was Nicholas Winton and why does he have a memorial at a train station?

Nicholas Winton was a British stockbroker who, in the spring of 1939, organized a series of rescue trains that carried 669 children, most of them Jewish, out of Czechoslovakia to Britain as the Nazi occupation closed in. The children were placed with British foster families and survived the war, while many of their relatives who stayed behind perished in concentration camps. Winton kept silent about what he had done for decades — the story only surfaced in the late 1980s, when his wife discovered a scrapbook documenting the operation in their attic. Since then he has become a symbol of quiet heroism, and the so-called "Winton Trains" are now part of Holocaust education in both the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom.

What does the memorial look like, and who designed it?

The bronze sculpture is the work of Flor Kent, a Venezuelan-born artist based in London. It depicts Winton himself standing with a suitcase at his side, gazing quietly into the distance, alongside two children — a boy and a girl — representing the young passengers he helped save. The girl in the sculpture was modelled on the granddaughter of a woman who, as a child, was among those rescued on a 1939 transport to Britain. The figures are life-size and placed directly on the platform rather than on a raised plinth, which gives the memorial an unusually intimate, almost documentary quality — visitors find themselves standing at eye level with a scene frozen from the eve of war.

When was it unveiled and where exactly can you find it?

The memorial was unveiled on 1 September 2009, the same day a commemorative "Winton Train" departed from Prague retracing the route of the original rescue transports seventy years earlier. Flor Kent herself attended the unveiling ceremony. The sculpture stands on Platform 1 of Prague's Main Railway Station, right next to the tracks from which the actual rescue trains once left — a deliberate choice meant to root the memorial in the authentic site of the events it commemorates.

Why is it worth stopping by?

Unlike most Prague monuments, this one doesn't require a special detour — it sits right where travellers are already waiting for their connections. Its power comes not from scale or grandeur but from proximity: passengers standing on the same platform as the bronze figures share, in a small way, the same physical space where children once said goodbye to everything they knew. For anyone interested in 20th-century history, the Holocaust, or Winton's story specifically, it's an essential and easily accessible stop while passing through the station.

Frequently asked questions

Where exactly is the Winton memorial located? On Platform 1 of Prague's Main Railway Station (Praha hlavní nádraží), in the publicly accessible part of the station hall.

Who created the sculpture? Venezuelan-born, London-based artist Flor Kent.

When was the memorial unveiled? On 1 September 2009, marking the 70th anniversary of the first rescue transports.

How many children did Nicholas Winton save? Records of the operation put the number at 669 children, mostly of Jewish descent, transported from Czechoslovakia to Britain in the spring and summer of 1939.

Is there an entrance fee? No — the memorial stands in the public area of the railway station and can be viewed free of charge at any time.