@revengine said:

I don't understand that if knowing what happened to all the kids he saved was so important to him, why didn't he just find out sooner? It's not like he saved all those kids and sent them over seas somewhere, they were all brought to England and he himself lived in England. It took 50 years, and someone else, to get him to meet up with them again? Seems he wasn't so concerned about them after all.

Nicholas Winton worked hard and risked a lot in 1938 to bring the children to Britain and finding homes and sponsors for them. It was not easy as most people - e.g. politicians - believed in appeasement and didn't think that Jews were in any danger. Many countries, including the US, refused to help, so that probably two thousand children were lost. He was criticised by some of doing nothing more than just what everyone would have done, as he was never personally present or in any danger - like Schindler - when the children were transported to England.

Winton was a humble man, who did not consider himself a hero and did not seek fame. He was just a human who was able to help and did what he believed was right, in the times when it was required. When he knew the children were safe and had a home, he was content to have accomplished what he set out to and remained anonymous. He would have stayed unknown, as he preferred, if not for his late daughter Barbara Winton, who wanted her father's heroism to not be forgotten.

@revengine said:

I don't understand that if knowing what happened to all the kids he saved was so important to him, why didn't he just find out sooner? It's not like he saved all those kids and sent them over seas somewhere, they were all brought to England and he himself lived in England. It took 50 years, and someone else, to get him to meet up with them again? Seems he wasn't so concerned about them after all.

I didn't think that his regret was not knowing what happened to the kids, but that he wasn't able to save more. As @wonder2wonder says, he was a humble man who wasn't seeking glory or affirmation that he had been successful in his efforts. Obviously, when he did get to see how many lives he had touched, it did bring him some peace (though I suspect he still regretted not being able to save more).

Even if he had wanted to trace the children, I would suspect that a lot of records would have been lost during the war/bombings. According to Wiki, only 80 of he children were traced via the scrapbook by Elisabeth Maxwell (or probably her lackeys), who had what would have been pretty unlimited resources. "That's Life" was insanely popular the time, so I'm guessing a fair few of the people in the second audience came forward after seeing the first show.

Anyway, an incredibly powerful movie. Even typing this has made me quite emotional.

@wonder2wonder said:

Nicholas Winton worked hard and risked a lot in 1938 to bring the children to Britain and finding homes and sponsors for them. It was not easy as most people - e.g. politicians - believed in appeasement and didn't think that Jews were in any danger. Many countries, including the US, refused to help, so that probably two thousand children were lost.** He was criticised by some of doing nothing more than just what everyone would have done, as he was never personally present or in any danger - like Schindler- when the children were transported to England. **

That's shocking! If "anyone would have done it", why didn't they - why weren't more children saved? Different emotion now!

@M.LeMarchand I agree that Winton very likely regretted not being able to save more. Blake asked him at one point something like "Do you ever think of the children you saved?" Winton answers that he doesn't where we know that's a lie because we've seen him looking at the pictures of them more than once. So we know Winton is not completely open on how he feels about the work he did. So from this I think we can determine that when he discusses the last train and the empty pages of the scrap book with Elizabeth Maxwell, he's not letting on how much it affected him.