Also at Radio Praha.Klaus meets Winton who saved children from Nazis
Prague - Czech President Vaclav Klaus appreciated the heroic act of Briton Nicholas Winton who saved over 600 Czechoslovak children before World War Two during their meeting at Prague Castle, the presidential seat.
"You are not and will not be forgotten," Klaus told Winton at the begining of the meeting.
On this occasion, Klaus also recalled that his predecessor Vaclav Havel presented Winton with a high Czech state decoration, the Order of Tomas Garrigue Masaryk in 1998.
Winton, 98, who is on a one-week visit to the Czech Republic, met Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, students, diplomats from several countries as well as some of those whose lives he saved on Tuesday.
Schwarzenberg supported the initiative of Czech students who have collected more than 30,000 signatures under a petition for Winton being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the salvation of Jewish children.
Schwarzenberg has already written a letter to the Stockholm-based Nobel Prize committee in this respect.
Defence Minister Vlasta Parkanova presented Winton with the ministry's highest award, the defence cross of merit, 1st class, on Tuesday.
Winton saved 669 Jewish children from Czechoslovakia before the war when he organised train transports from Prague to Britain. He had to secure permits for the departure for all children from Germans and entry permits from British authorities and admission to British families.
The saved children have some 5000 ascendants.
Queen Elizabeth II promoted Winton to knighthood.
During his stay to the Czech Republic, Winton will also visit south Bohemia where Czech astronomers at the Klet observatory named an asteroid after him.
Via CeskeNoviny.cz
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Photo/Hynek Moravec
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