Save One Life,Save the Worl

Stephen Bates

尼古拉斯·溫頓爵士

It is not always true that the good die young. Sir Nicholas Winton,who has died aged 106, became known belatedly as “the British Schindler” for his part in rescuing more than 600 children in Czechoslovakia from the Nazis in the months before the outbreak of the Second World War.1. belatedly: 遲地；Schindler: 奧斯卡·辛德勒（1908—1974），是一位德意志大亨、德國(guó)間諜，納粹黨成員，于第二次世界大戰(zhàn)期間開(kāi)設(shè)搪瓷和彈藥工廠，雇傭了許多猶太人作業(yè)，最終成功挽救了1,200名工人免遭德國(guó)納粹的屠殺；Czechoslovakia: 捷克斯洛伐克；outbreak: 爆發(fā)。His was a good deed performed by stealth2. by stealth: 偷偷地，暗中。,and it was not generally known about for nearly 50 years until revealed on the BBC’sThat’s Life!TV programme.

Winton—who always rejected the idea that his actions were heroic—had approached the BBC to try to trace some of those he had helped bring to Britain in 1939.3. heroic: 英雄的；trace: 追蹤，查探。He was moved to do so by the discovery by his wife, Grete, of a scrapbook in which he had inscribed the names, addresses and birthdates, together with photographs, of the children at the time of their rescue.4. 促成他這樣做的是他妻子格蕾特的發(fā)現(xiàn) —— 一本剪貼簿，他在上面記下了當(dāng)時(shí)他營(yíng)救的孩子的姓名、地址、出生日期，還附有照片。scrapbook: 剪貼簿；inscribe: 寫(xiě)。The book had lain untouched at the family home in Maidenhead5. Maidenhead: 梅登黑德，是一個(gè)位于英國(guó)伯克郡的鎮(zhèn)和非教區(qū)地，地處泰晤士河南岸。for many years.

尼古拉斯·溫頓爵士被譽(yù)為“英國(guó)辛德勒”，他曾在二戰(zhàn)爆發(fā)前的九個(gè)月中，從納粹手里救出了669名猶太兒童。2009年9月1日，那些被救助過(guò)的“溫頓的孩子們”沿著當(dāng)年的路線到達(dá)英國(guó)，拜見(jiàn)了恩人，而他已是100歲高齡，“孩子們”亦是兩鬢斑白。2014年10月，105歲高齡的他在布拉格城堡被捷克總統(tǒng)授予了最高榮譽(yù)獎(jiǎng)?wù)隆转{勛章。2015年7月1日，尼古拉斯·溫頓爵士去世了，享年106歲，但是他的故事和精神卻將一直延續(xù)，感動(dòng)并鼓舞著每一個(gè)人。

When the programme was broadcast in 1988, Winton found himself sitting in the front row of the audience. Unbeknown to him he was surrounded in the audience by the adults whose lives he had saved—their whereabouts having been traced by the programme’s researchers.6. unbeknown: 不知情的； whereabouts:下落，去向。On a command from7. on a command from: 在……的指令下。the show’s presenter Esther Rantzen—“Stand up if you owe your life to Nicholas Winton!”—they all did so. The emotionally reserved Winton found himself embraced by the survivors and struggled to maintain his composure, tears welling behind his spectacles.8. emotionally reserved: 情緒上克制的；composure: 鎮(zhèn)靜；well: v. 流出，涌出；spectacles: 眼鏡。

His actions as a 30-year-old stockbroker had finally been recognised as he approached his 80s, and he was subsequently honoured by the Czech Republic, receiving in 2014 its highest award, the Order of the White Lion.9. stockbroker: 股票經(jīng)紀(jì)人；subsequently:隨后；Czech Republic: 捷克共和國(guó)；Order of the White Lion: 白獅勛章，是捷克共和國(guó)最高榮譽(yù)勛章，order意為“勛位，勛章”。Having been appointed MBE for other charitable services,he was knighted in 2003.10. MBE: 即Member (of the Order) of the British Empire，英帝國(guó)勛章獲得者；charitable service: 慈善服務(wù)；knight: v. 授予爵位。

Winton came from a wealthy Anglo-Bavarian Jewish family that had emigrated to England in the 19th century.11. Anglo-Bavarian: 盎格魯-巴伐利亞；Jewish: 猶太的；emigrate: 移居外國(guó)。By the time he was born, to Rudolph and Barbara Wertheim—the surname was anglicised only in 1938—the family had converted to Christianity.12. anglicise: 使……英國(guó)化；convert to: 皈依；Christianity: 基督教。He was one of the first pupils to be educated at newly founded Stowe school in Buckinghamshire.13. pupil: 學(xué)生；Stowe school: 英國(guó)斯多中學(xué)；Buckinghamshire: 英國(guó)白金漢郡。After leaving he joined a bank and then, in 1931,became a stockbroker.

年輕時(shí)期的尼古拉斯·溫頓和他救助的孩子

尼古拉斯·溫頓爵士被授予白獅勛章

In December 1938 he received a call from his friend, Martin Blake,a schoolmaster, asking him to cancel their planned skiing trip to Switzerland that Christmas and urging him to meet him in Prague instead.14. schoolmaster: 校長(zhǎng)；skiing: 滑雪；Switzerland: 瑞士；Prague: 布拉格，捷克首都。Winton arrived on New Year’s Eve and was introduced by Blake to the organisers of the recently formed British Committee for Refugees15. refugee: 難民。from Czechoslovakia. The city was filling up with an estimated 250,000 people, many of them Jewish, who were fleeing Germany, Austria and the German-speaking Sudetenland,which the Nazis had annexed the previous October.16. flee: 逃離；Sudetenland: 蘇臺(tái)德區(qū)，位于捷克斯洛伐克西北部；annex: 并吞。Others were from political families and opponents17. opponent: 反對(duì)者，敵人。of the Nazis. Their living conditions in camps were pitiful and most were clamouring to get away.18. pitiful: 可憐的，令人同情的；clamour: 大嚷大叫。

Winton became determined to at least help the children of some of the families. He started taking names, and found his room at the Europa hotel in Wenceslas Square was besieged by families,queuing all day in the freezing cold to get their names on the list.19. 他開(kāi)始記錄名字，并發(fā)現(xiàn)他在瓦茨拉夫廣場(chǎng)歐羅巴酒店的房間被眾多家庭圍堵，這些人成天在冰天雪地里排著隊(duì)要列入名單。Wenceslas Square: 瓦茨拉夫廣場(chǎng)，位于布拉格；besiege: 圍攻；queue: 排隊(duì)。Winton and his colleagues, Doreen Warriner, organiser of the committee, and Trevor Chadwick, took photographs and details of the children and began to organise their evacuation20. evacuation: 撤離。. The first flight of 20 left in January 1939, sponsored by an organisation called the Barbican Mission, whose intention was to convert them to Christianity. Winton, who was not personally religious, saw his priority over the coming months as helping to get the children out rather than converting them, but he would subsequently brusquely ask rabbis who lobbied him whether they would prefer the children to be dead or alive.21. 溫頓本人并不信教，他認(rèn)為在未來(lái)幾個(gè)月他的首要任務(wù)是幫助孩子們出逃，而不是要讓他們皈依，但他后來(lái)很粗魯?shù)貑?wèn)那些游說(shuō)他的猶太教教士們，想讓孩子們生存還是死亡。priority: 優(yōu)先；subsequently: 后來(lái)；brusquely: 粗魯?shù)?；rabbis: 拉比（猶太教教士）；lobby:v. 游說(shuō)。

Winton went back to London after three weeks with a long list of children and, after his day’s work in the City, returned home to Hampstead each evening to organise permits and travel warrants for them to leave Prague and come to England.22. Hampstead: 漢普斯特德，是英國(guó)倫敦的一個(gè)區(qū)域，屬于內(nèi)倫敦卡姆登區(qū)的一部分，在20世紀(jì)上半葉又容納了大批逃避俄國(guó)革命和納粹的知識(shí)分子；permit: n.許可證；travel warrant: 旅行執(zhí)照。It was not a straightforward matter: the British bureaucracy was complacent and slow, believing there was no urgency as war was deemed unlikely, and the government demanded bonds of 50—no small sum in those days—to sponsor the children.23. 這不是一件直截了當(dāng)?shù)氖拢河?guó)的官僚機(jī)構(gòu)又自滿又低效，認(rèn)定事態(tài)并不緊急、戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)不會(huì)發(fā)生，政府還要求50磅的擔(dān)保金來(lái)贊助這些孩子，這筆錢(qián)在當(dāng)時(shí)可不算小數(shù)。straightforward:直截了當(dāng)?shù)模籦ureaucracy: 官僚機(jī)構(gòu)；complacent: 自鳴得意的；deem: 認(rèn)定；bond: 保證金；sponsor: 贊助。The arrangements were, nevertheless, better than those of countries such as the US and Australia, to whom Winton appealed in vain.24. appeal: 懇請(qǐng)，求助；in vain: 徒勞無(wú)功。“If America had only agreed to take them too, I could have saved at least 2,000 more,” he said.

Frustrated by the slowness of the British authorities, Winton made newspaper appeals and personally organised the children’s placements, with no time for checking suitability or haggling over who should go where.25.英國(guó)政府機(jī)構(gòu)的低效令溫頓深感挫敗，于是他在報(bào)紙上呼吁求助，親力親為地安排孩子們的安置地點(diǎn)，無(wú)暇顧及是否適合或爭(zhēng)論誰(shuí)該去哪兒。placement: 安置；suitability: 適合性；haggle over: 爭(zhēng)論。As the situation in Czechoslovakia grew more desperate following the German occupation of the entire country in March 1939, he took to forging the Home Office entry permits.26. occupation: 占領(lǐng)；take to: 開(kāi)始從事；forge: 偽造；the Home Office: 內(nèi)政部。That summer eight rail transports were conducted. A ninth Kindertransport, which was due to leave on 1 September 1939 with 250 more children, was cancelled by the Germans, and most of those who would have been on board were subsequently transported to concentration camps.27. Kindertransport: 即children’s transport，難民兒童運(yùn)動(dòng)，發(fā)生在二戰(zhàn)爆發(fā)前的九個(gè)月里，英國(guó)從德國(guó)、奧地利、捷克斯洛伐克、波蘭等國(guó)救出近一萬(wàn)個(gè)猶太兒童；concentration camp: 集中營(yíng)。Nevertheless, Winton and his colleagues had saved at least 664 children: 561 of them Jewish, 52 Unitarians, 34 Catholics and 17 others.28. Unitarian: （基督教中不信仰圣父、圣子、圣靈三位一體的）上帝一位論派教徒；Catholic: 天主教徒。

Among the children were the future film director Karel Reisz and the Labour politician Alf Dubs. Most of them, sent across Europe alone or with their brothers and sisters, would never see their parents and relatives again. Virtually none had any idea at the time who was instrumental in saving them.29. virtually: 實(shí)質(zhì)上； instrumental: 有幫助的，起作用的。

With the outbreak of war Winton put his scrapbook away and became an ambulance driver in Normandy, but was evacuated at Dunkirk and then joined the RAF.30. ambulance: 救護(hù)車；Normandy: 諾曼底，法國(guó)西北部一地區(qū)，北臨英吉利海峽；Dunkirk: 敦刻爾克，是法國(guó)北部諾爾省的臨海市鎮(zhèn)，10公里之外便是法國(guó)與比利時(shí)邊境；RAF: Royal Air Force，英國(guó)皇家空軍。After the war he worked for a time for the International Committee for Refugees and took charge of selling Nazi booty31. booty: 戰(zhàn)利品。to aid Jewish organisations. He later worked for the International Bank in Paris, distributing loans to the war-ravaged countries of Europe, and it was there that he met his Danish wife,32. war-ravaged: 受戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)蹂躪的；Danish:丹麥的。who was a secretary at the bank. The couple had three children, one of whom died in childhood.

He was able to retire early and devoted himself to fundraising for Mencap and the Abbeyfield charity, which provides sheltered accommodation for elderly people:33. fundraising: 籌款；sheltered accommodation: 收容所。it was for this work that he was appointed MBE in 1983. It was not until five years later that his wife discovered the scrapbook and the family found out his story.

Winton, known to family and friends as Nicky, received many awards from the Czech authorities, including the freedom of Prague and the Order of Tomas Masaryk, presented to him by Vaclav Havel.34. the Order of Tomas Masaryk: 馬薩里克勛章；Vaclav Havel: 瓦茨拉夫·哈維爾（1936—2011），捷克作家及劇作家，著名的持不同政見(jiàn)者，天鵝絨革命的思想家之一，在1993—2003年間擔(dān)任捷克共和國(guó)總統(tǒng)。He was the subject of a Czech documentary35. documentary: 紀(jì)錄片。,The Power of Good, in 2001, the year that his story,Nicholas Winton and the Rescued Generation—co-written by Vera Gissing,one of the children he saved—was published. He also received the freedom of Maidenhead, and a bronze statue36. bronze statue: 銅像。has been placed there on the railway station platform.

Vera Egermayer, a survivor of the Terezin camp37. Terezin camp: 特雷津集中營(yíng)。, said: “Nicky is a national hero here in the Czech Republic. In England you don’t know about him but everywhere else we do. He did a kind act and never told anybody.” Winton himself insisted he was not a hero because he had never been in danger, merely “working from the safety of my home in Hampstead.”

He modestly insisted that it had been his colleague Chadwick,who had stayed in Prague to organise the evacuations, who had been the real hero, but in writing to Winton to award him the Order of the White Lion the Czech president, Milo Zeman, said: “You gave these children the greatest possible gift: the chance to live and be free.You did not think of yourself as a hero but you were conducted by a desire to help those who could not defend themselves, those who were vulnerable38. vulnerable: 脆弱的。. Your life is an example of humanity, selflessness,personal courage and modesty.”

Grete died in 1999. Winton is survived by39. be survived by sb.: 沒(méi)有某人活得長(zhǎng)。his children Nicholas and Barbara, and by two grandchildren.