Family, the Holocaust & Me with Rob Rinder

Appearing on the genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? often proves to be an emotional experience, but it had a particularly profound effect on Robert Rinder as he learned more about his grandfather’s experiences during the Second World War.

The barrister-turned-TV judge told The Mirror: “Oh, that programme was life changing. My grandfather was a Holocaust survivor and I went back to where his family were in Poland. “There was a moment when I stood in a camp with a survivor from that camp who told me what it was like when he came across my grandfather, who had been a survivor in Belsen.”

Now in his two-part documentary My Family, the Holocaust & Me with Robert Rinder, the presenter is helping three more families whose lives were touched by the atrocity to retrace their relatives’ footsteps and discover what really happened to them.

This year marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. As we move further away from the Holocaust, there are fewer survivors left to tell their stories, but as Robert points out, the trauma continues to affect subsequent generations.

As well as uncovering individual stories, the programmes will reflect on what it means to be the child or grandchild of Holocaust victims and survivors.

In the opening episode, Robert meets two different British Jewish families who want to fill in some of the gaps in their knowledge of their history.

Bernie Graham remembers that when he was a child, his grandfather would point to his missing eye and say ‘Nazis’, but he doesn’t know what happened to him. Bernie has also heard that his grandmother was sent to Auschwitz but survived until after the liberation.

Now, he is travelling to Germany, where his family lived before the Second World War. There he discovers the horrific truth about his grandfather’s injury and the disturbing story of how his grandmother was forced to pay for her own transportation to an extermination camp in Poland.

Sisters Natalie and Louisa Clein know that their Dutch Jewish grandparents survived the Holocaust, but have been told that their great-aunt Els “died in the war”. They know little about her fate, so they travel to the Netherlands, where they discover that Els was a famous dancer before the war, but a cruel twist of fate would thwart her chances of survival.

It turns out there is also more to their grandmother’s story, as they find out about her incredible work with the Dutch resistance.

Robert is also undertaking a journey of discovery as, after visiting his paternal grandfather, he learns the name of the town his family came from in Lithuania. The trail takes him from there to a town called Voranava, in what is now Belarus. He visits the site of a mass grave, which he describes as the most articulate expression of human evil I’ve ever come close to”.

While it as a reminder of why we can never forget the horrors of the Holocaust, the documentaries also contain tales of strength, courage and defiance.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper whenever you are able to do so.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper when you can safely.

You can also enjoy unlimited access to the best news from across Northern Ireland and the UK by subscribing to newsletter.co.uk

With a digital subscription, you can read more than five articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Thank you