The amazing story of the boy saved from Nazism, who became a music teacher

Nicholas Wintonnicknamed the “British Schindler”, was a bank employee in London, who after a trip to Prague witnessed the helplessness of children in a city suffocated by the Nazi advance. Out of conviction, Winton began a frantic race against the clock: the organization of the Kindertransport (child transports), a rescue operation that managed to transport 669 children by train to the safety of the United Kingdom.

For fifty years, Nicholas Winton kept his feat completely anonymous, even to his own family, silently carrying the sadness of those he could not rescue.

It was not until 1988 that his story became known. In a historic BBC programme, the world saw an elderly Winton surrounded by adults who, standing up, revealed to him that they were “his children”. But while the film a life (starring Anthony Hopkins) portrays the hero, A fundamental part of that miracle was beating in the streets of Buenos Aires.

Few know that one of those children was Jií František Lechner, known in Argentina as Jorge Lechner. At six years old, Jorge and his sister Hanna boarded one of those saving trains. After being adopted by a British family, the statistically impossible happened: their biological parents survived, arrived in Buenos Aires and managed to recover them.

In Buenos Aires, little Jorge later became, in addition to being a lawyer, a pianist, orchestra director and internal teacher at the Teatro Colón, where he spent his entire career.

He married the renowned pedagogue and pianist Lyl Tiempo, Karin was born, and his father conducted her in Mozart’s Concerto No. 21 when she was only 13 years old.

Then, Jorge and Lyl separated and, as a result of his marriage to Lolita Lechner LoubetFederico and Constanza, also pianists, were born. Federico with his world of jazz, recorded Letters to my father (2015), a beautiful album that brings together original, classical and tango pieces, and a piece dedicated to Winton. Constanza, for her part, the youngest of the Lechner Loubet couple, edited Childhooda record that addresses small gems of musical literature. The three of them never lived together, Karin lives in Brussels and her brothers in Madrid. But Music unites them, when each one’s busy schedules allow it, and the three of them usually give concerts together.

Jorge Lechner died in 1979 in Buenos Aires, before the BBC released Winton’s story to the world. He never knew that he had been saved thanks to an unknown banker.

After Jorge’s train, there was another one with 150 children, on September 2, 1939, one day after the declaration of war. By then, the Germans had already closed the borders and the train never left. Although Winton had saved 669 children, he felt so guilty about the 150 that he never wanted to talk about what he had done, not even with his family.until his wife discovered the documents of the feat in the attic of their house and took them to his wife. Robert Maxwellthe British media mogul.

Through his children Karin, Federico and Constanza, and his granddaughter Natasha Binder, all noted professional pianists, Jorge’s legacy remains vibrant. It’s a family story, but there’s also something universal, and very precious for Jewish culture: the transmission of knowledge and memory.

In Jewish tradition, this transfer is called L’dor V’dor (from generation to generation): a chain of wisdom whose vitality depends on the uninterrupted transmission. Here, teaching is elevated to a sacred act of preserving identity, transforming knowledge into a living bridge and a dynamic tool to build the future through music and memory.

That invisible but indestructible thread, a musical and ethical heritage, is so essential to Lyl Tiempo decided to make this story known to the world. He contacted the Argentine journalist, photographer and videographer Rodrigo Carrizo Couto to bring the story to the screen.

Couto was fascinated by the topic, he had already worked with themes related to the Holocaust in Israel and France, and he immediately accepted.

“We filmed a lot, but there is something very important left, which is to film Buenos Aires. You cannot talk about this story without going to Colón, where Jorge Lechner worked as a musician. We want to talk to the people who knew him, who were with him in Colón. Until now we are advancing as autonomous production, but we are looking for support in Argentina, especially in the United States and, to a lesser extent, in Belgium and England,” says Couto by telephone from Switzerland.

In Czechoslovakia, Winton is a kind of hero. “Winton’s son told us that he was a pop star in Czechoslovakia, to the point that he would walk down the street and people would ask him for autographs and take photos with him. In fact, he has a monument and they even made a musical comedy for him.”

Rodrigo, at Lyl’s request, recorded in London what was the last meeting between Winton and the survivors of the Kindertransport; the three Lechner brothers were going to play as guests of honor. But that day, Federico became ill and could not attend. “We projected Federico playing at the Prague Jazz Festival when he paid tribute to his father. Natasha, Connie and Karen played and spoke. There we met the Winton family and this whole idea began to take shape. We saw, from Lyl’s idea, that there was material to go further,” says the director.

The video that was shown of Federico was filmed by Couto in 2016. Federico had just released his album Letters to my fatherwhere each of the works has a relationship with his father, whom he knew little because he died when he was 5 years old. AND on that album there is a blues dedicated to Winton.

“I have been a friend of Fede for a long time – says Rodrigo -. On one occasion we met in Prague, when Federico gave a recital at the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in tribute to his father. It is there that I met Karin and Constanza, who went precisely for that tribute. At that moment I discovered the story and they asked me to cover the event. So I did, I followed them practically morning, afternoon and night, I even filmed the jazz festival. I discovered the fascinating story and then I wrote a note for the newspaper The Country”.

The documentary is projected as a double tribute, to Winston and Lechner. “It’s about resilience, how music heals us, and how a precious flame is passed between generations,” reflects Carrizo Couto, and provides more details about the documentary that, although it is very advanced, is still in the process of being made.

“There is a very unique participation of Martha ArgerichJorge’s friend. Martha knows the whole story perfectly, she talks about this and also about very personal things that have nothing to do with music. For example, about the rabbi grandfather.”

When Martha saw the trailer for the documentary, Couto remembers, she started crying. “This is very important, this has to be told, especially in these times of rampant anti-Semitism.” There he decided to participate in the filming with his testimony.

It is not the only surprise in the documentary, there is something completely unprecedented: a home recording of Winton at 101 years old, with Natasha Binder and Karin, both playing the piano for him. “That has enormous symbolic value,” says Couto. “The same symbolic value that the interaction that will be seen in the documentary between Natasha and Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines also has.”a survivor thanks to Kindertransport and who at 100 years old narrates his experience with great lucidity“Other survivors also participate, contributing their testimonies.

Nicholas Winton, a man who not only saved bodies, but preserved futures. As the Talmudic saying says: “Who saves one life, saves the whole world“Winton saved 669 worlds. The Lechners’ music is proof that the delicate sound of a piano can be the highest form of victory. Because as long as there are those who transmit knowledge, barbarism will never have the last word.