Sir Nicholas Winton’s Little Nicky gets Warm Welcome to South Florida

Now into its 3rd week with no sign of slowing down,  NICKY’S FAMILY has motivated South Florida movie goers and area school students to sign petitions to nominate Sir Nicholas Winton for the Nobel Peace Prize.  Dubbed the British Schindler,  Winton (now 103 years old) saved 669 mainly Jewish children from Czechoslovakia, which was under occupation by Nazi Germany in 1939.  Today there are 6,000 children and descendants in Nicky’s Family.

The petition was started by the students of Open Gate School in the Czech Republic to recognize Winton’s acts of heroism and carry on his legacy.  Over 120,000 Czech students have signed the petition to date.  After hearing that NICKY’S FAMILY was opening theaters in South Florida, the students (who are just a little older than the children who were saved by Winton) asked Matej Minac, the film’s director, to  encourage all in the United States who have been moved by the actions of Sir Nicholas Winton to join them in their efforts.

Just prior to the January 11 opening at theaters, Menemsha Films, the distributor of NICKY’S FAMILY and The Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education (CHHRE) at Florida Atlantic University (FAU), began distributing the petition forms to local school students and through the theaters to movie goers.  Menemsha Films also initiated the petition on the Change.org website at http://www.change.org/petitions/czech-republic-nominate-sir-nicholas-winton-for-the-nobel-peace-prize   The students of the Open Gate School will submit the signed petitions to the Nobel Prize Committee in Oslo, Norway in June 2013.

“We began the petition in the U.S. on behalf of the students of Open Gate School, only two weeks ago and we’ve already gathered over 6,000 signatures online and through printed petitions at South Florida schools and theaters. Our goal is to reach at least

250,000 signatures by May 1, as we continue to release NICKY’S FAMILY theatrically in key U.S. markets,” said Neil Friedman of Menemsha Films.

Rochelle Walters with Movies of Delray and Movies of Lake Worth commented, “Despite that Winton’s story centers around a horrific time in our history, it’s an uplifting film.  Audiences leave inspired and everyone is signing the petition. One woman who saw the film at an advance screening stopped in just to sign the petition after a friend told her about it.”

” We reached over 500 adults at theaters and over 2,000 students at area school assemblies with Sir Nicholas’ son, Nick Winton and a survivor from The Florida Chapter of the Kindertransport Association.  Since then, teachers have arranged for students to see the film, sign petitions and have engaged them in projects that help others,” stated Martha Brown with The Center for Holocaust and Human Rights Education at FAU.

Sir Nicholas Winton risked his own life while organizing train transports for the children from the endangered area to Great Britain which was not yet affected by the war.  There he found new homes for them and allowed them to start a new, safe life. He never talked about his deed and had it not been for his wife, who in 1988 by chance discovered documents about the whole operation, his heroic act would be forever hidden from the eyes of the public and the saved children.

Dozens of Winton’s “children” have been found and to this day “his family” has grown to almost 6,000 people, many of whom have gone on to achieve great things themselves. Winton’s story has also inspired thousands of children in countries around the world to follow in his footsteps through charitable deeds and life-saving efforts.

Narrated by renowned TV reporter of the Canadian CBC, Joe Schlesinger, who is also one of the rescued children, NICKY’S FAMILY tells story of Sir Nicholas Winton through dramatizations, historical footage, interviews with Winton, the Dalai Lama, the children whom he saved and school students.