Nicholas Winton saved Northridge man's life during Holocaust

NORTHRIDGE, Calif. (KABC) -- Dave Lux said he wouldn't be alive today if it wasn't for Nicholas Winton.

Lux was 5 years old when Adolf Hitler's Nazi party were approaching his native Czechoslovakia. Many Jewish families were desperate to get out of the country but weren't being allowed to.

Winton happened to be vacationing in the country and decided to step in to help get the children out.

"I have a motto that if something isn't blatantly impossible, there must be a way of doing it," Winton later said.

He forged documents and worked the bureaucratic system to try and get the kids aboard trains headed for his native England.

Lux and his brother were given a spot on one of the trains, but it was very difficult for their parents to say goodbye.

"My mom, she was totally hysterical. Remember, I'm not even 6 years old. I have no idea why she's hysterical," he said.

That would be the last time Lux would ever see his parents. He later learned that they died inside the concentration camps at Auschwitz.

Lux and his brother eventually arrived safely in England, and were raised inside a Jewish boy's school. Lux served in the Israeli army and then moved to Northridge.

As for Winton, he never told anybody about what he did for 50 years.

Lux first found out about Winton during a 50th anniversary Holocaust survivor's reunion. He spotted his name on Winton's manifest and called it "the biggest shock of his life."

"When I saw my name and my brother's name printed in his file, I think I stopped breathing," Lux said. "I couldn't talk so I finally blurted out a word: 'why?'"

Winton told him he felt compelled to help.

Lux, who often speaks at the Museum of Tolerance to share Winton's story, expressed his gratitude several times over the next several decades of Winton's life, and regularly corresponds via email with Winton's kids.

His passing at age 106 Wednesday left Lux very emotional.

"I'll never forget him and I'll do whatever I can [to make sure] that no one will ever forget him," Lux said.