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| Sir Anthony Hopkins plays Sir Nicholas Winton, who helped save 669 children from the Nazis. ©Warner Bros |
Actor Sir Anthony Hopkins, who plays the role of Sir Nicholas Winton in the new film One Life, disagrees with the notion that he is a hero. Winton was behind the Kindertransport trains that transported mainly Jewish children from the former Czechoslovakia before World War Two. He didn't want to be considered a hero, but he hoped that people would learn from his actions.
Sir Nicholas, who died at the age of 106, told the BBC in 2014 that there was nothing heroic about it. However, what he and others did to save the children was heroic. He didn't talk about his actions for nearly 50 years until his story appeared in the Sunday Mirror and on the BBC's That's Life. Unbeknown to Winton, Dame Esther Rantzen's program had gathered survivors who had been saved by him.
Johnny Flynn, who plays the young Winton in the film, tells the interviewer that Sir Nicholas dwelled for decades on what he hadn't managed to do, rather than what he had. The last train with 250 kids was due to leave the day that Germany invaded Poland and all borders shut. Only two of them are believed to have survived the war. Sir Nicholas, says Flynn, felt "deep shame" about it. But about 6,000 people are thought to be alive today because of what he, and other volunteers in Prague, pulled off - against the odds.
Some descendants of the Kindertransport children were in the audience when the One Life film recreated the memorable That's Life scene. Sir Anthony tells the interviewer that the whole story has affected him throughout his life and that it has stayed with him throughout his life. He was born in 1937 and was 18 months old when war was declared.
Sir Anthony agrees with Sir Nicholas' view on averting conflict, which was that "the only way through is compromise." He believes that films can make people think for a bit and that it is up to people to stand up for what they believe is right.
The interview also includes meeting Renate Collins, who was on the last Kindertransport to make it out of Prague. Renate had chickenpox and a temperature of 104 that day, and her mother wanted to delay her precious daughter's departure. She was happily fostered and later adopted by a family in Rhondda. Renate continued to receive letters from her parents, including the last letter in 1942, facilitated by the Red Cross from the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Sixty-four of Renate's family members, including her parents, were murdered by the Nazis.
Renate was in the second row for the That's Life recording in 1988, which she says was a "very emotional experience." She later got to know Sir Nicholas, who was very introverted and didn't want anyone to know. As one of Britain's most revered actors, Sir Anthony is modest as he approaches the grand age of 86. He believes in using compassion and understanding when acting, and he is an artist himself.
One Life will be released in the UK on 1 January 2024.
