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Helena Bonham Carter Says She Was ‘Born to Play’ Role in Film About Holocaust Rescuer Nicholas Winton
British actress Helena Bonham Carter speaking with a Jewish woman whose family escaped Czechoslovakia with the help of the actress’ grandmother, Violet Bonham Carter. Photo: Screenshot/”My Grandparents’ War.”
Actress Helena Bonham Carter said in a new interview that, because of her Jewish heritage, she felt she was destined to play her role in the new film One Life, which is about British stockbroker Sir Nicholas Winton and his efforts to save 669 Jewish children from the Nazis before the outbreak of World War II.
In the BBC Films and See-Saw Films production, Bonham Carter plays Winton’s German-Jewish mother, Babette “Babi” Wertheim. Two-time Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins and Johnny Flynn both play Winton at different ages, and the cast also includes Jonathan Pryce, Lena Olin, Romola Garai, and Alex Sharp.
“It was in my DNA to play this role because I come from Austrian Jewish heritage,” Bonham Carter told Britain’s Jewish News. “And on top of that, on both sides, both my grandparents helped a lot of Jewish people with visas to get out of Nazi Europe.”
Bonham Carter discovered in 2021 that her maternal Jewish grandfather, Eduardo Propper de Callejon, was a Spanish diplomat who defied government orders to help save thousands of French Jews during the Holocaust and that her British paternal grandmother, Lady Violet Bonham Carter, was a politician and volunteer air raid warden who helped Jews from around Europe find refuge in Britain. The latter also sponsored a family from Prague who had escaped Nazi persecution.
Bonham Carter said the role of Babette in One Life “resonated on a different level” because of her Jewish background.
“My great grandmother was Austrian. So most people in my family will recognize my great granny who just popped up when I put on the accent and the clothes. So in a way, she just came to life,” explained the BAFTA-award winning actress. “So there was a lot of overlap with my actual history. I felt when asked to do it that it was in the stars. I was compelled to do it.”
Bonham Carter also said she “loved the idea of being able to say I was Anthony Hopkins’ mom.”
Winton organized a rescue mission that brought approximately 669 children, mostly Jewish, safely from Czechoslovakia to Britain, in an effort later known as the Kindertransport. He raised money to fund the transports and also found British foster families to care for the children. He did not publicize his heroic efforts, even after the war, but they were brought to light in 1988 during an episode of the television program That’s Life. Winton, who was nicknamed “British Schindler” after German Holocaust rescuer Oscar Schindler, died in 2015 at the age of 106.
Bonham Carter told Jewish News that One Life could be “hugely educational” in terms of teaching audiences about the Holocaust.
The post Helena Bonham Carter Says She Was ‘Born to Play’ Role in Film About Holocaust Rescuer Nicholas Winton first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.