Nobody knew what was going to come, that it was going to be so awful
Lenka Köppelová is one of the saved ‘Winton’s children.’ She was born as Elinor Schneiderová in Česká Lípa in 1928. However, she spent her entire childhood in Prague-Karlín till 1939. She came from an assimilated Czech-Jewish family. She and her sister went to Britain in the children transport at the end of May 1939. Nevertheless, their names are not on any official lists of ‘Winton’s children.’ With her sister they lived in the county of Herefordshire. They were isolated from other Czechoslovakian ‘Winton’s children.’ Her elder sister Margit Rytířová (Schneiderová) served in the British RAF. Elinor attended school in a little town Ross-on-Wye not far from the Welsh border. She graduated in 1946 and returned to Czechoslovakia in the same year. Shortly after her arrival to Prague she got married. Her only son was born in 1949. She worked in Artia, a foreign literature publishing house, from the late 50s till 1985. She met Alice Klímová there - another of ‘Winton’s children.’ Later in the 90s she got to know about the fate of Nicolas Winton because of Alice. She learned about how his fate was interconnected with hers and her elder sister’s and how he gained recognition for saving their lives. Lenka köppelová died in 2016.