Son of Holocaust survivor Ernest Winter on confronting antisemitism and finding hope in Jesus
“That’s my Dad!” Daniel Winter was shocked to see the grainy image of his father in a video that had been given to him to watch. The film was about the atrocities of World War II and how Jewish children had been evacuated to safety in the “Kindertransport.”
“My father was born into a Jewish family in 1924. Growing up in Berlin as a boy and pre-teen was a very traumatic experience for him, as Jewish children were treated with contempt and as less than human. This was true especially when Goebbels started posting his propaganda against the Jews,” Winter told ALL ISRAEL NEWS. “He witnessed the horror of the Kristallnacht and was the only one in the Jewish Children’s Home that was rescued.”
The young Ernest Winter arrived in England in 1938. A famous photojournalist named Kurt Hutton snapped his picture in the middle of two other Jewish boys. According to Daniel Winter, that picture went on to be on a cover article in the Picture Post, “Their First Day in England” and was used to plaster the UK with appeals for the Jewish Refugee Fund. Tragically, his mother perished a short while later in Auschwitz.
Ernest Winter was taken in by a Christian widow named Mrs. Peterson. “She was very kind and for the first time, instead of being spat on and called, “Christ-killer,” she said, “You are blessed Ernest Winter, as you come from the same people as my Lord and Messiah.” It was the first time that he as a Jew had been treated kindly by a Christian,” Winter relayed.
It was at Capernwray Christian Centre that his father heard stories about Jesus. He was particularly moved by the story of the woman caught in adultery and said, “How different this Jesus is. Most would have shoved that woman further down and certainly would not have [ever]forgiven her.” As he got up to leave, he told the man shaking his guests’ hands at the door, “I’m Jewish but what I’ve heard tonight I’ve been looking for.” That man was Major Ian Thomas, the director of Capernwray Hall.”
“That night changed the trajectory of my father’s life,” Winter said. “He had a dramatic conversion to Jesus as his Messiah, and was called by God to be an associate evangelist of Major Ian Thomas.” Ernest Winter went on to become an evangelist and pastor who later moved to Ontario, Canada, where he served the Lord until the day he died.
Daniel Winter, now also a pastor, has recently been on a life-changing visit to Israel. He told ALL ISRAEL NEWS what it was that made his experience so significant.
“I went to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. It was heartbreaking for me, especially at the Auschwitz section. I couldn’t hold back the tears as I realized the horror my grandmother endured there for two years. She is memorialized there with almost 5 million others who have records there,” he said. “I wondered how a nation of Christians could stand back and let something this horrifying happen. What I was seeing I could hardly fathom.”
He was part of a delegation of multidenominational clergy from Canada, and together they went to visit the Nova Festival site where nearly 370 people were murdered by Hamas terrorists. The parallels between the Holocaust and the atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023, were stark.
“We listened to the most horrifying story of a young Israeli Jewish woman, Mazal Tazazo, who recounted the trauma of surviving one of the most brutal attacks on women in modern history. Mazal survived by lying in the dirt for hours between her two best friends who were dead. Girls weren’t just shot but brutalized in the most horrifying ways – beyond imagination. The attack from approximately 300 terrorists lasted a day. Mazel relived her trauma as she retold her story,” Winter recalled. “Lots of tears.” He said that when Tazazo tried to tell her story on U.S. campuses, she was accused of lying.
The delegation also visited Kfar Aza, where they saw a house in which a young couple were dragged out and shot on the bed. “Their place looks like a crime scene. Dishes are still in the sink from October 6, the night before.”
“The reality that hit me so starkly is that nothing has changed in our world since the time of the Holocaust. In fact, the brutality of this attack seemed even worse than that of the Holocaust, if that were even possible,” he said.
“I began to think about my father. The only thing that stopped him from becoming a man filled with bitterness was his encounter with Jesus Christ at the age of 23 years old. In fact, he was the most gracious, forgiving man I have ever met.”
Reflecting on all he had seen and heard, Winter came to the conviction that knowing Jesus is the only thing that can stop the brutality he witnessed. “No amount of revenge will ever bring healing. Only the Gospel of Jesus Christ will transform hearts filled with rage and hatred,” he concluded.
Winter’s father also shared this conviction. “As a student pastor doing an internship in Ireland, he went with his mentor back to Germany to speak in churches to share a message of forgiveness and the love of Christ,” said Winter. “German Christians would line up to shake his hand after he spoke, asking, “Can you forgive us for not standing up for your people in our country?” It was a time of healing for him and them.”
“I believe that God has given me the ministry of reconciliation – that I’m a minister of the Gospel of Jesus, who said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life (John 14:6),” Winter said. “I also believe that because of my family history, God has given me the privilege of being a bridge builder between Jews and Christians – to take down barriers between Bible believing Christians and Jews of every background,” he continued.
With antisemitism spiraling beyond what many could have imagined, Winter expresses the fear that many in the Jewish community now feel. “Every week, there is an attack on a synagogue. Even this week in Toronto, a synagogue was smashed by a thug,” he said.
“Since October 7, the Jews that I have spoken with in Canada have told me one thing: they no longer feel safe in our country,” he said, adding, “With Zohran Mamdani’s election, I do wonder how the Jewish community will react. Even today, I heard of a Jewish woman who has moved away to a safer part of the United States.”
When asked what message he would give those living under these concerning conditions, Winter responded with three points:
“First to the Christians. Stand with the Jews. Do not let them face abuse alone. Stand up for them and their homeland of Israel. Stand with them when they suffer. They are God’s chosen people and related to our Lord Jesus the Messiah. Hold your mayor and justice system to account if they fail to protect them. Pray for them. Hold events to bless them. Love them in Jesus’ name,” he began.
“Secondly,” he continued, “to the Jewish community: Do not abandon Israel. Take your children there to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Help them understand that it is their homeland too. Help them see the sacrifices that people made to make that homeland possible. I remember my broken heart hearing the recording of the Hatikvah sung by emaciated prisoners who had been set free from the concentration camps. Their voices were weak but were filled with hope.”
“Finally,” he concluded, “like my father experienced firsthand, I believe that the only hope of real-world peace is through relationship with our Messiah Jesus of Nazareth who took upon Himself the sin of the world so that we can be reconciled to God – who is love. Islam is not a religion of peace, no matter how many times that mantra is repeated. Only Jesus brings real peace. Only Jesus shows us what “God is Love” means.”
Footage of Ernest Winter’s arrival in England can be seen in the documentaries “Our Knees Were Jumping” and Academy Award-winning “Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport”.
A picture of Ernest’s mother, Ziwje Winter, can be seen in Yad Vashem. Taken while in hiding, she wrote on the back, “To my dear son, for remembering.”
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Jo Elizabeth has a great interest in politics and cultural developments, studying Social Policy for her first degree and gaining a Masters in Jewish Philosophy from Haifa University, but she loves to write about the Bible and its primary subject, the God of Israel. As a writer, Jo spends her time between the UK and Jerusalem, Israel.
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