Active Goodness: The True Story of How Trevor Chadwick, Doreen Warriner & Nicholas Winton Saved Thousands From The Nazis by Edward Abel Smith

Author:Edward Abel Smith [Smith, Edward Abel]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Kwill Books
Published: 2017-10-01T04:00:00+00:00

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Meanwhile, the adult section of the BCRC, the core at which it had been founded was also dealing with a race against time. So far 300 adults, nearly all male, had been swept away to Britain.

Warriner still had over 600 women and children she wanted to evacuate, a number which shocked the BCRC in London. She took the decision to fly back to Britain in the hope of speeding up the process. With pages of names in hand, she landed in London on 29th January. In a meeting with Gillies, Layton and the committee, she tried to put forward her reasons for using the loan money on the families of those they had already rescued. It was explained to her in polite terms that the money was to be used for people in immediate danger, which they felt these families were not. Warriner knew this was not the case, arguing passionately about the inevitability of Hitler’s invasion and his disdain for all democratic Germans, whether they be male, female or children. He would arrest anyone he could. But the committee adamantly argued against this, leaving Warriner in despair. She wrote years later, “In Prague we lived on tenterhooks, but London were detached and calm... it was impossible to get through the cotton wool which prevented them from hearing.”[93]

She left the meeting distraught, believing that there was no way of getting the families out. As the committee had pointed out, Winton and Chadwick were completely self-sufficient when it came to funding the children’s evacuation – they were not asking for money from the British loan. They explained the parameters of the loan, and families were not part of it.

What Warriner did not know was that straight after the meeting, Gilles had whisked up the list of 600 names and taken it straight to Foreign Office, where it was miraculously approved without question. The committee would only find out months later.

Over the next three days, Warriner went from office to office in London. She was determined to streamline the process as best she could. One in particular which would save 100s of lives was in stamping passports. Up to this time, all documents were being sent by post, taking over three weeks to arrive in Prague. Warriner made a deal with the Home Office that they would start sending these by air, taking only a day. It meant that Warriner would be able to get visas approved in a couple of days, rather than several weeks.

On 2nd February, she flew back to Czechoslovakia reenergised. She had a new process arranged, funding and the visas agreed for 600 families. Back in Prague, as the sun began to melt the icy streets, Warriner rushed to Taub’s office to tell him the news. This was what they had been waiting so many months for.

Working from 8 a.m. until the early hours of the following morning, Warriner, her three assistants Taub, Patz and Mollik were sorting the arrangements. Visas would arrive from London by the plane

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