Qhis is a story of trains and children. This is a story of fear and courage. This is a story of war and escape that has been lost in silence and which today finds an unexpected life, where explorers, inventors or adventurers do not meet. Nicky & Verto, published by Rizzoli, is a story of reluctant and silent heroes. Designed with the roundness and naturalness of the stroke that a child can have and is the characteristic of Peter Sís. Great cartoonist and imaginative designer seventy-year-old who has always transformed thoughts and stories into short films and books, receiving the Golden Bear for the animated short Hlavy to the West Berlin Film Festival in 1980 and the prestigious medal named after Hans Christian Andersen in 2012.
Peter Sís is an American illustrator and writer of Czech origin. His designs have appeared in Time, Newsweek, Esquire and The Atlantic. Photo by Jan Slavík © DOX CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART
Peter Sís and the return to Prague
Peter Sís was born in Czechoslovakia, studied in Prague, he studied at the Royal College of Art in London, where he learned about blue jeans, rock and roll, the music of the Beach Boys, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones. That world that intrigued and attracted him and in which he ended up staying, sent to the United States in 1982 to celebrate the presence of Czechoslovakia at the Olympics with an animated film. And that he never left, after having requested and obtained political asylum. But in Prague the beautiful, magical Prague, returned when his son Matej was a teenager and they were walking around talking about heroes.Challenging theme: what makes a person a true hero? But also an ancient hero, a sports hero, a folk hero.
Nicholas Winton’s train
The answer awaited them at the National Museum whose walls bear the names of Czech heroes. The marble atrium was crowded with cheerful people preparing to cut a giant cake, decorated with a chocolate train and the words “Winton’s Train”. Because we celebrated the 100th anniversary of this extraordinary man, Nicholas Winton. And some of those cheerful people, di those neatly combed women, those smiling men were the children Winton had saved in Prague. «In post-war Czechoslovakia – says Sís – I had heard many fragments of stories about who and in what way had survived the Nazis. They were stories that impressed my son Matej and me more than we were aware of. I was always looking for exceptional characters, but I had never paid attention to these silent heroes and after all, before 1989, Winton had never mentioned his distant past. Some of the rescued children told the story and eventually Winton decided to talk about it in a BBC broadcast.“. Here is his story, which simply begins like this among ships, airplanes and trains in tender pastel colors.
Nicky & Vera Story of a discreet hero of the Holocaust and of the 669 children he saved, Rizzoli, Pages 64, euro 18
Nicky’s story
Nicky was born in 1909, in a century full of promise. As a young man he traveled throughout Europe. He worked as a banker. He learned German and French, to drive motorcycles and cars, and to fly airplanes. Nicky and his friends often talked about politics and were concerned about the European situation. In Germany the Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler, was forming an army. In December 1938, Nicky was planning a ski vacation when he received a call from a friend: “Come to Prague,” she told him. He canceled his vacation and flew to Czechoslovakia: with the war more and more imminent he had decided he had to do something. England would welcome refugees under seventeen years old, but first they had to find host families and organize the trip. So, in January, he returned to London. After work, she would post advertisements in newspapers to find families willing to take children. A precise organization, in which he applied for visas and planned trips. Sometimes he paid out of his own pocket and often forged the necessary stamps. There was no time to waste. In March 1939, the German army invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia. Between the spring and summer of 1939, thanks to Winton’s efforts, eight trains left Prague and 669 children of all ages arrived safely in London. On September 1, Germany attacked Poland. That day, a ninth train with 250 children was due to travel. But the borders were closed and the train did not leave. Nicky couldn’t do anything more. Vera Gissing, one of the saved girls whose story and diary in the book develop in parallel, was able to return to her country after the war but did not stay in Czechoslovakia. Four years later, he returned to England and got married.
Nicky lived a quiet life and never told her story until, fifty years later, his wife found his old papers and the story was brought to everyone’s attention on a television program. When the host said his name, Vera, who was sitting next to him, stood up, then everyone stood up. If it hadn’t been for him, those children would not have been saved. “I was not a hero He said simply. I was in no danger, unlike true heroes. I just saw what had to be done. ” And Peter Sís recounted it with innocent words and images, which hurt the heart even more.
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