0:00:05 > 0:00:06Regular viewers of the roadshow
0:00:06 > 0:00:08will know we've made special programmes
0:00:08 > 0:00:11around the theme of remembrance in the past.
0:00:11 > 0:00:13Tonight, we're telling a different story.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16Not of the lives of British servicemen and women,
0:00:16 > 0:00:20but of those whose lives were shattered by the Holocaust.
0:00:21 > 0:00:25And as the country prepares to mark Holocaust Memorial Day,
0:00:25 > 0:00:27we're bringing together some of those people,
0:00:27 > 0:00:30and others, who still live with the consequences
0:00:30 > 0:00:32of that most dreadful of times.
0:00:32 > 0:00:33And our venue for today,
0:00:33 > 0:00:36for what will no doubt be an emotional gathering,
0:00:36 > 0:00:39is the very impressive Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
0:00:43 > 0:00:45They will share with us
0:00:45 > 0:00:47their memories and keepsakes of the Holocaust.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50Many were just children
0:00:50 > 0:00:52during Hitler's tyranny.
0:00:52 > 0:00:56Welcome to this special edition of the Antiques Roadshow,
0:00:56 > 0:01:00in which, I believe, you'll hear the most powerful and moving stories
0:01:00 > 0:01:02we've ever told.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27Later this year, work will begin on an important project
0:01:27 > 0:01:30next to the Houses of Parliament.
0:01:30 > 0:01:32A British national memorial
0:01:32 > 0:01:34will be built here in this park to honour those
0:01:34 > 0:01:36who died in the Holocaust
0:01:36 > 0:01:39and those who survived and came to Britain
0:01:39 > 0:01:41and made it their home.
0:01:43 > 0:01:45During the Second World War,
0:01:45 > 0:01:50the Nazis and their collaborators killed around six million Jews.
0:01:50 > 0:01:52The deadliest genocide in history
0:01:52 > 0:01:57also included anyone who didn't fit Hitler's ideal of Aryan perfection,
0:01:57 > 0:02:00those with mental and physical disabilities,
0:02:00 > 0:02:03Roma and gay people among them.
0:02:03 > 0:02:04Over the last year,
0:02:04 > 0:02:07the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation,
0:02:07 > 0:02:08set up by the Government,
0:02:08 > 0:02:11has recorded British survivors telling their stories
0:02:11 > 0:02:13while they still can.
0:02:13 > 0:02:15This archive of interviews,
0:02:15 > 0:02:18conducted by broadcaster Natasha Kaplinsky,
0:02:18 > 0:02:21will form an important part of the education centre,
0:02:21 > 0:02:24so later generations can see what happens
0:02:24 > 0:02:27when hatred is allowed to prevail.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33All those who participated were invited to join us
0:02:33 > 0:02:35for this recording of the Antiques Roadshow
0:02:35 > 0:02:36in the heart of London,
0:02:36 > 0:02:38at which we invited them to bring
0:02:38 > 0:02:41what precious objects they have from this time,
0:02:41 > 0:02:44to meet me and four of our experts -
0:02:44 > 0:02:46Paul Atterbury,
0:02:46 > 0:02:49Rupert Maas,
0:02:49 > 0:02:51Mark Smith
0:02:51 > 0:02:54and John Benjamin.
0:02:55 > 0:02:58This being the Antiques Roadshow, we could put a value on items -
0:02:58 > 0:02:59we're not going to,
0:02:59 > 0:03:01because the things we'll be looking at
0:03:01 > 0:03:03are beyond any commercial value.
0:03:03 > 0:03:05They are emotionally and historically priceless,
0:03:05 > 0:03:07as Rupert Maas has been finding out,
0:03:07 > 0:03:10looking at some extraordinary sketches.
0:03:12 > 0:03:16Now, Judith Kerr, your name will be familiar to millions of people,
0:03:16 > 0:03:18of course, for your famous children's book,
0:03:18 > 0:03:22The Tiger Who Came To Tea, and the Mog series,
0:03:22 > 0:03:24which all my children, at least, have read.
0:03:24 > 0:03:26But you're less familiar for these,
0:03:26 > 0:03:29well, extraordinary two very early drawings
0:03:29 > 0:03:32which you did before you were nine, is that right? In Berlin?
0:03:32 > 0:03:38Yes, and the extraordinary thing is that when we had to leave
0:03:38 > 0:03:40in a great rush, because of Hitler,
0:03:40 > 0:03:45my mum, with all the other things she had to think about,
0:03:45 > 0:03:46decided to pack those,
0:03:46 > 0:03:50when she might have packed something more useful.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54And this one is of the central railway station in Berlin.
0:03:54 > 0:03:56- Yes.- With the grocer's stall and the tram.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00- Yes.- And this one, of the local playground, I suppose.
0:04:00 > 0:04:04I think it was a fair, I think it was a special occasion.
0:04:04 > 0:04:09Now, very shortly after this time, Hitler comes to power,
0:04:09 > 0:04:12it's the burning of the Reichstag, the writing's on the wall.
0:04:12 > 0:04:15- Yes.- And your father was a very famous theatre critic, wasn't he?
0:04:15 > 0:04:19- Yes.- And an outspoken critic of the Nazis, so you had to get out.
0:04:19 > 0:04:23Yes. All that winter, before we left Germany,
0:04:23 > 0:04:26people were being murdered in the streets,
0:04:26 > 0:04:31and my father used to do a broadcast once a week
0:04:31 > 0:04:35in which he probably insulted Hitler and made fun of him,
0:04:35 > 0:04:40as he always did, and then come back through the Berlin streets,
0:04:40 > 0:04:44and this was thought so dangerous
0:04:44 > 0:04:49that the radio company used to send a car with an armed bodyguard
0:04:49 > 0:04:51to pick him up.
0:04:51 > 0:04:55So there's absolutely no doubt about what would have happened
0:04:55 > 0:04:58had he stayed in Berlin after the election.
0:04:58 > 0:05:02He would've been picked up and murdered.
0:05:02 > 0:05:04Probably even before the elections.
0:05:04 > 0:05:06He left about two weeks before.
0:05:06 > 0:05:08So, he went separately?
0:05:08 > 0:05:11- Oh, yes...- Much safer. - He went immediately.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14And then my mum had this very short time,
0:05:14 > 0:05:15I think about ten days,
0:05:15 > 0:05:18in which to organise everything...
0:05:18 > 0:05:20And you got out, what, by train?
0:05:20 > 0:05:23Well, yes. About five o'clock in the morning,
0:05:23 > 0:05:25we took a little train
0:05:25 > 0:05:28and it went across the frontier to Zurich
0:05:28 > 0:05:32on 4th March 1933.
0:05:32 > 0:05:37The elections which brought Hitler to power were on 5th March.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40And on the morning of 6th March,
0:05:40 > 0:05:43they came to our house to demand all our passports.
0:05:43 > 0:05:49- Crikey.- So my entire life, my 93 years,
0:05:49 > 0:05:52is due to that, and I can never forget that.
0:05:52 > 0:05:54- Two days?- Two days.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57But weren't you at all afraid?
0:05:57 > 0:05:59No, I think I was too stupid.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02I didn't understand what was happening.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05Then we went to Paris, which was wonderful.
0:06:05 > 0:06:07I loved it. Erm...
0:06:07 > 0:06:12We were living in this grotty flat, high up in Paris,
0:06:12 > 0:06:16and my father and I were looking out of the window
0:06:16 > 0:06:18and we could see all the lights of Paris,
0:06:18 > 0:06:21and apparently I said to him,
0:06:21 > 0:06:23"Isn't it lovely being a refugee?"
0:06:23 > 0:06:25LAUGHTER
0:06:25 > 0:06:28Which must have cheered him up.
0:06:28 > 0:06:32Awfully big adventure. And you wrote later what you call a novel,
0:06:32 > 0:06:35which was really autobiographical, wasn't it?
0:06:35 > 0:06:37- Yes.- Of your adventures on that occasion,
0:06:37 > 0:06:40called When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit.
0:06:40 > 0:06:41Yes, that's right.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44- And this was an illustration for the American edition.- Yes.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46- So this is you and your brother. - Yes.
0:06:46 > 0:06:48- And your father and your mother, is that right?- Yes, yes.
0:06:48 > 0:06:50It's quite like us.
0:06:50 > 0:06:52Of course, as I wrote it,
0:06:52 > 0:06:57I realised, far more than I had realised before,
0:06:57 > 0:07:02how incredibly protective my parents had been.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05My mother had to cope with everything,
0:07:05 > 0:07:08and it was hard for her,
0:07:08 > 0:07:14and she attempted suicide a couple of times.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18And I suddenly thought, having children myself, you know,
0:07:18 > 0:07:21how would I act in those circumstances?
0:07:21 > 0:07:24And not as well, I think.
0:07:24 > 0:07:29But I can tell you that millions of children have read your books
0:07:29 > 0:07:34and learned about this awful period in European history
0:07:34 > 0:07:38and learned a lot about human nature and family life from your books.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42So perhaps you have done a very good thing after all.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44Well, that would be good.
0:07:53 > 0:07:58For those who stayed, Hitler's Nazis increased their persecution.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02Jews had their rights and livelihoods removed.
0:08:02 > 0:08:04But things were about to get much worse.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10November 1938.
0:08:10 > 0:08:13Kristallnacht. It's an infamous night.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16The turning point when the Nazi party
0:08:16 > 0:08:18made its statement to the world,
0:08:18 > 0:08:24that it was out to eradicate the world of Jewish people.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27Kristallnacht itself gets its name
0:08:27 > 0:08:30from the fact that shop windows were broken,
0:08:30 > 0:08:33the Jewish star and the "J" in yellow
0:08:33 > 0:08:35were painted on all of the buildings.
0:08:35 > 0:08:37The synagogues were destroyed,
0:08:37 > 0:08:40and the streets were so full of glass afterwards
0:08:40 > 0:08:43- that it crunched in the glass, which is really...- Yeah.
0:08:43 > 0:08:45..the concept of Kristallnacht.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49- And you were there.- Yes. - You were a witness that night.- Yes.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52I remember, although I was only six-and-a-half at that time,
0:08:52 > 0:08:56being rounded up with my parents and all the other Jews in our area
0:08:56 > 0:08:58and being marched through the town,
0:08:58 > 0:09:02and people standing on the sidewalk, jeering and shouting.
0:09:02 > 0:09:06I can't actually remember very much more
0:09:06 > 0:09:07until we got to the hall,
0:09:07 > 0:09:12where we were kept without food and water for about 12, 15 hours.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15And from that moment on,
0:09:15 > 0:09:20my mother made every effort to get us out of Germany.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23Unfortunately, my father was arrested by the Gestapo
0:09:23 > 0:09:27the next night and taken to a concentration camp,
0:09:27 > 0:09:31where he was kept till June 1939,
0:09:31 > 0:09:33and would be very fortunate and lucky
0:09:33 > 0:09:36to get a visa to the UK on 29th August,
0:09:36 > 0:09:39which was cutting it a little bit fine.
0:09:39 > 0:09:40It was. Yes.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42Now, who is this little chap here?
0:09:42 > 0:09:48Yes. This little chap is my first cousin, Rolf,
0:09:48 > 0:09:52who was living with his parents and his grandparents...
0:09:52 > 0:09:54- Yes. - ..in a place called Arnsberg,
0:09:54 > 0:09:57where the whole family came from.
0:09:57 > 0:10:01I met him for the last time in the end of 1938,
0:10:01 > 0:10:02which was, in fact,
0:10:02 > 0:10:06the last time I saw any of my family from over there.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09What happened to Rolf?
0:10:09 > 0:10:12Well, Rolf and his cousins
0:10:12 > 0:10:14and his parents and grandparents
0:10:14 > 0:10:16were eventually rounded up
0:10:16 > 0:10:20and taken by train to Auschwitz.
0:10:20 > 0:10:22The fathers were sent away to work.
0:10:22 > 0:10:23The mothers and the children
0:10:23 > 0:10:26were immediately sent to the gas chambers.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29And we know that Rolf and his mother and his cousins
0:10:29 > 0:10:31were sent straightaway to the gas chambers.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36I think this shows more than anything
0:10:36 > 0:10:39that the Nazis were out to kill
0:10:39 > 0:10:41everybody who was Jewish,
0:10:41 > 0:10:45because this is the T-shirt of a very small...
0:10:45 > 0:10:47It was Rolf's T-shirt.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49- It's just a lad, isn't it, really? - Yeah.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52And to actually have a concept
0:10:52 > 0:10:54and a regime
0:10:54 > 0:10:56which is out there
0:10:56 > 0:10:57to destroy everything,
0:10:57 > 0:11:02I think something like this T-shirt is so poignant,
0:11:02 > 0:11:05because it says it's everybody.
0:11:05 > 0:11:08Yeah, and that's the terrible part about it.
0:11:08 > 0:11:12You know, they didn't discriminate between kids and grown-ups.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15It would've been bad enough just the grown-ups,
0:11:15 > 0:11:17but to include the kids as well...
0:11:17 > 0:11:19- It really was...- Yeah.
0:11:19 > 0:11:20- ..a...- Yeah.
0:11:20 > 0:11:23..operation to remove everybody.
0:11:23 > 0:11:25To annihilate a race, basically.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29Yes. I understand that we have some other people with us today
0:11:29 > 0:11:32who also lived through these experiences.
0:11:40 > 0:11:44I...I've actually gone silent there,
0:11:44 > 0:11:47because that is such a poignant visual sign
0:11:47 > 0:11:50of the 20th-century's darkest hour,
0:11:50 > 0:11:53and I never, ever thought I would see three people
0:11:53 > 0:11:57hold up three real stars that they were issued with...
0:11:57 > 0:12:00is an incredibly humbling moment.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03Thank you so much for bringing them along.
0:12:12 > 0:12:15Of all the things I've seen today, I think this, for me,
0:12:15 > 0:12:18is the most chilling, because it's a children's game,
0:12:18 > 0:12:20but it's teaching children to hate.
0:12:20 > 0:12:21It's called Jews Out.
0:12:21 > 0:12:24Ben, you brought it along from the Wiener Library,
0:12:24 > 0:12:27which is Britain's Holocaust archive.
0:12:27 > 0:12:29It's a horrifying thing, isn't it?
0:12:29 > 0:12:31It is a very horrifying thing
0:12:31 > 0:12:34and, as you say, it's because it's directed at children
0:12:34 > 0:12:38and it's about indoctrinating children into this view of Jews
0:12:38 > 0:12:42as something pestilential and unwanted and to be got rid of.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46And these characters are meant to symbolise the Jews, here,
0:12:46 > 0:12:47these horrible caricatures...
0:12:47 > 0:12:49- That's right. - ..in their homes and businesses.
0:12:49 > 0:12:51And the object is...
0:12:51 > 0:12:52How does it work? It's to round them up?
0:12:52 > 0:12:56It's to round them up. So you roll dice and these figures,
0:12:56 > 0:12:59which represent the sort of German policemen,
0:12:59 > 0:13:01go marching round the town
0:13:01 > 0:13:04and when they land on the circles where the yellow cones are,
0:13:04 > 0:13:08the cones actually then sit on top of the hats of the policeman
0:13:08 > 0:13:10and are brought back to what's called the collection point,
0:13:10 > 0:13:12or the Sammel-Platz,
0:13:12 > 0:13:15and then you set out to get another one,
0:13:15 > 0:13:18and it's a sort of race to be the first to round up six.
0:13:18 > 0:13:20And then when you get six, is it off to Palestine?
0:13:20 > 0:13:23- As it says here?- Notionally, for the Jews you've rounded up,
0:13:23 > 0:13:25they are sent away to Palestine.
0:13:25 > 0:13:27And this was created when, this game?
0:13:27 > 0:13:29This was created in 1938,
0:13:29 > 0:13:32and it was not produced by the Nazi party,
0:13:32 > 0:13:36but was a commercial undertaking, so made for profit.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39- Was it popular? - I believe it was very popular.
0:13:39 > 0:13:43It was a commercial success, although now it's a great rarity.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47And it's so important not to forget that things like this existed.
0:13:47 > 0:13:49Yes, that's right.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52Some people nowadays try to deny that the Holocaust ever happened,
0:13:52 > 0:13:55and the whole purpose of our collection
0:13:55 > 0:13:59is to make sure that those suggestions will always fail,
0:13:59 > 0:14:02because we have the evidence in front of us.
0:14:07 > 0:14:10Objects can be a lightning rod into the past.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13Some of our other guests also brought with them items
0:14:13 > 0:14:16which helped tell their family's story.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21This silver Judaica comes from Beregovo,
0:14:21 > 0:14:24a town in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains.
0:14:24 > 0:14:26And in April 1944,
0:14:26 > 0:14:28my grandmother Bella
0:14:28 > 0:14:31wrapped them and buried them in the family garden
0:14:31 > 0:14:34when they were being rounded up to be deported to Auschwitz.
0:14:34 > 0:14:36And, amazingly,
0:14:36 > 0:14:41not only did my grandmother survive and return home,
0:14:41 > 0:14:45but also my father Hugo, who was then just 13 years old,
0:14:45 > 0:14:50survived the selection at Auschwitz by pretending to be 18
0:14:50 > 0:14:54and survived two death marches with his father, Geza.
0:14:54 > 0:14:58Geza died a few days after they were liberated.
0:14:58 > 0:15:03And my grandmother managed to get these items out to my father
0:15:03 > 0:15:05and they're still used in our family home,
0:15:05 > 0:15:07and my mother still uses these candlesticks
0:15:07 > 0:15:10whenever we gather together for Shabbat.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13To know that we're still continuing traditions
0:15:13 > 0:15:17that the Nazis, of course, intended to have wiped out
0:15:17 > 0:15:20is very important to me.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30Well, I've brought my grandfather's watch.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33It was, for a while, the only thing that he owned in the world.
0:15:33 > 0:15:35He was forced to flee Berlin.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38He put every single bit of currency he had into it,
0:15:38 > 0:15:41because he saw it as his ticket out of Berlin and out of Germany.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45His mother was not able to accompany him when he fled,
0:15:45 > 0:15:48and he found out subsequently that she was killed in Auschwitz.
0:15:48 > 0:15:51He seeked refuge in England
0:15:51 > 0:15:54and, originally, he was interned as an enemy alien,
0:15:54 > 0:15:56because there wasn't sort of that implicit understanding
0:15:56 > 0:16:00that these people were refugees at that point.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03They were given the opportunity to volunteer to go on a ship
0:16:03 > 0:16:06called the Dunera, which was bound for Canada.
0:16:06 > 0:16:08The only way that he was able to keep the watch
0:16:08 > 0:16:11when they boarded the ship was he concealed in his flies.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15And, in fact, the ship wasn't bound for Canada at all,
0:16:15 > 0:16:16it was heading to Australia.
0:16:16 > 0:16:20And when he arrived, he was completely alone in the world.
0:16:20 > 0:16:22He was round about my age
0:16:22 > 0:16:25and effectively an orphan who'd had to flee his homeland.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29When I look at this watch,
0:16:29 > 0:16:31it's possibly the entire family history
0:16:31 > 0:16:34sort of condensed into this one artefact.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37So, for the family and for me, it's incredibly precious.
0:16:40 > 0:16:45In 1938, as borders and possible escape routes for Jewish people
0:16:45 > 0:16:47began to slam shut,
0:16:47 > 0:16:50British Jews, Quakers and other aid groups,
0:16:50 > 0:16:52with the support of the UK Government,
0:16:52 > 0:16:54set up a rescue plan.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57So many people needed saving
0:16:57 > 0:17:00it was decided to take only the children,
0:17:00 > 0:17:03and some 10,000 youngsters were eventually brought to safety here.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08Desperate parents handed over their little ones,
0:17:08 > 0:17:11not knowing if they would ever see them again.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15"Save one life, save the world" -
0:17:15 > 0:17:19which is from the Jewish Talmud, the book of law.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24This is a ring beyond all rings, I think it's true to say.
0:17:24 > 0:17:25It's a gold hoop ring,
0:17:25 > 0:17:28and I would like you to tell me who it belonged to
0:17:28 > 0:17:30and that person's story.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34Well, it belonged to my father, Nicholas Winton,
0:17:34 > 0:17:38and he was given it in 1988.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41It was a thank-you from a group of people
0:17:41 > 0:17:44who came to call him their honorary father,
0:17:44 > 0:17:49and they gave it to him for something he did in 1939,
0:17:49 > 0:17:5150 years earlier.
0:17:51 > 0:17:54Let's reel this back to 1938.
0:17:54 > 0:17:58Well, in 1938, my father was a 29-year-old stockbroker
0:17:58 > 0:18:03and he was due to go skiing with a friend of his, Martin Blake.
0:18:03 > 0:18:05A week before they were due to go,
0:18:05 > 0:18:07he got a phone call from Martin saying,
0:18:07 > 0:18:09"The holiday's off, I'm in Prague.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13"I think you should come out and see what I'm doing."
0:18:13 > 0:18:16And because my father was very aware of what was going on in Europe,
0:18:16 > 0:18:19with Hitler invading Austria,
0:18:19 > 0:18:21he understood very clearly that Prague was a place
0:18:21 > 0:18:25where there were many thousands of refugees looking for a way out,
0:18:25 > 0:18:27but they couldn't get a country to take them in.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30He felt that people were trying to help the adults,
0:18:30 > 0:18:32but no-one was focusing on the children.
0:18:32 > 0:18:35And when he came back to England, he said,
0:18:35 > 0:18:38"I'm going to go to the British Government and ask for permission
0:18:38 > 0:18:41"to bring in unaccompanied children from Czechoslovakia,"
0:18:41 > 0:18:42because, yes, they'd given permission
0:18:42 > 0:18:46- for Germany and Austrian children... - What was their reaction here?
0:18:46 > 0:18:48Well, he was told that they wouldn't like it,
0:18:48 > 0:18:50that they wouldn't want a separate application.
0:18:50 > 0:18:52His view was, "I'm going to have a go."
0:18:52 > 0:18:55And so he went into the Home Office and asked for permission
0:18:55 > 0:18:57and they said, "Sure. No problem.
0:18:57 > 0:19:01"Two conditions - one, that you find a foster family for each child
0:19:01 > 0:19:05"for the duration of the problems, however long that may be,"
0:19:05 > 0:19:07and the second was a £50 guarantee
0:19:07 > 0:19:10that would pay for their repatriation when it was safe.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14- A lot of money at that time. - About £2,500 today.- £50.
0:19:14 > 0:19:19So, he managed to arrange for several hundred,
0:19:19 > 0:19:20I believe, wasn't it?
0:19:20 > 0:19:23Can you give me the number, the total number?
0:19:23 > 0:19:26Well, the number that we have on the reports is 669.
0:19:26 > 0:19:28We know that's not entirely accurate.
0:19:28 > 0:19:32I've met some who came on the trains but who weren't on the reports.
0:19:32 > 0:19:34- 669, or thereabouts.- Hmm.
0:19:34 > 0:19:41Children, to be on these trains to freedom, to safety, to security,
0:19:41 > 0:19:43all through what your father did.
0:19:43 > 0:19:45But he wasn't made public
0:19:45 > 0:19:50until the time that the ring itself was presented to him, wasn't it,
0:19:50 > 0:19:53by a number of the children of the Kindertransport
0:19:53 > 0:19:55that he'd actually saved,
0:19:55 > 0:19:58- is that correct?- That's right. Yes.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01I think that it's worthwhile pointing out
0:20:01 > 0:20:06that here, we have four people, on this extraordinary day,
0:20:06 > 0:20:11who were on the Kindertransport who your father actively saved.
0:20:11 > 0:20:16And why that's extraordinary in itself is because this lady here
0:20:16 > 0:20:19and this lady here have never met.
0:20:19 > 0:20:21This is the first time you've both met, is that correct?
0:20:21 > 0:20:24- Yes.- Yes.- What do you think about that?
0:20:24 > 0:20:27I felt I've made a new friend.
0:20:27 > 0:20:32- Yes.- I can't be more complimentary than that.
0:20:32 > 0:20:34And I owe your...
0:20:34 > 0:20:37my life to your father.
0:20:37 > 0:20:39- Mm.- Thank you very much indeed.
0:20:39 > 0:20:41Thank you.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48Poland was invaded in 1939,
0:20:48 > 0:20:52leading to the Nazi Final Solution to the Jewish question...
0:20:53 > 0:20:57..in which some three million Polish Jews were murdered.
0:20:57 > 0:20:59As death camps were built,
0:20:59 > 0:21:02some managed to escape to neighbouring countries,
0:21:02 > 0:21:05but nowhere was safe for long.
0:21:07 > 0:21:11Now, Joan, I'm looking at an old suitcase, a gold coin,
0:21:11 > 0:21:14a range of photographs of different periods.
0:21:14 > 0:21:16Now, surely, that is you.
0:21:16 > 0:21:18Yeah. Aren't I gorgeous?
0:21:18 > 0:21:20Wonderful. I'd recognise you anywhere.
0:21:20 > 0:21:22SHE LAUGHS
0:21:22 > 0:21:24Yeah! Yeah, that was me in Paris.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27I was about 18 months old there.
0:21:27 > 0:21:30This is July 1942.
0:21:30 > 0:21:32My parents were Polish Jews,
0:21:32 > 0:21:35and there was the first big round-up of women and children
0:21:35 > 0:21:37of Polish origin.
0:21:37 > 0:21:38So, you fled Paris.
0:21:38 > 0:21:40- Mm.- As a family?
0:21:40 > 0:21:43Yes. Well, we had parallel journeys.
0:21:43 > 0:21:45So we weren't together all that much.
0:21:45 > 0:21:51My father had nearly been rounded up in 1941, in June '41,
0:21:51 > 0:21:55and he had escaped down into Spain.
0:21:55 > 0:21:59He sent the guide back for us, and we didn't turn up,
0:21:59 > 0:22:00and he assumed we had gone.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03So, he assumed his family was dead?
0:22:03 > 0:22:04Yes.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07So, we've got this gold coin. Very striking it is.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11- Tell me about it.- It was in my father's effects when he died.
0:22:11 > 0:22:16The reason it's so thin is that it would've been hidden in a heel,
0:22:16 > 0:22:20you know? And he must've kept that as a security blanket.
0:22:20 > 0:22:22But he never mentioned it.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24It was only after he died...
0:22:24 > 0:22:26Well, it's an Austro-Hungarian coin.
0:22:26 > 0:22:28Gold is international.
0:22:28 > 0:22:31- Yeah.- What will always buy you out of trouble is a bit of gold.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34- Yes.- And so you take it with you. - Yes.
0:22:34 > 0:22:37And so you and your sister and your mother
0:22:37 > 0:22:40then, in a sense, set off on the same journey, don't you?
0:22:40 > 0:22:42- Yes.- By that time,
0:22:42 > 0:22:46the British Government, with a department called MI9,
0:22:46 > 0:22:48had developed escape lines
0:22:48 > 0:22:51that went from the Netherlands through Belgium,
0:22:51 > 0:22:53right through France, across the Pyrenees,
0:22:53 > 0:22:56so you are fed into an established escape system.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59- I believe so.- And I think... Did you travel with other people?
0:22:59 > 0:23:03Yes, because we were two young children,
0:23:03 > 0:23:06the airmen would carry us on their shoulders.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09We were in the mountains for several nights, apparently.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13And we were crying and hungry, and the guide did say to my mother,
0:23:13 > 0:23:18"If you can't shut them up, you've got to suffocate them."
0:23:18 > 0:23:20So it was a dangerous journey,
0:23:20 > 0:23:24because the Nazis were already in the mountains.
0:23:24 > 0:23:26To us, it's an inconceivable threat.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29And yet it's something I've heard many times.
0:23:29 > 0:23:31- Mm.- Because the risks were too great.
0:23:31 > 0:23:36- You know, many people did slip and fall and break a leg.- Yes.
0:23:36 > 0:23:39And if they were lucky, someone shot them.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42- Yes.- If not, they were left. - It's unbelievable.- Yeah.
0:23:42 > 0:23:44But you make it through.
0:23:44 > 0:23:46- Yes.- And then what happened?
0:23:46 > 0:23:51Well, the Americans had sent a rescue mission for the children
0:23:51 > 0:23:54like my sister, myself and others who had escaped.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57But the visas were only for children,
0:23:57 > 0:24:00so they wouldn't take adults.
0:24:00 > 0:24:03The expectation was that Spain was going to fall,
0:24:03 > 0:24:07- and my mother gave us up... - So, hang on. So, at that point...
0:24:07 > 0:24:09- Mm?- ..your family is just torn apart?
0:24:09 > 0:24:13- Torn apart, completely, yes. Yes.- It's this thing about...
0:24:13 > 0:24:17what we can't grasp without that experience is the sense of
0:24:17 > 0:24:21total destruction of family, of background and of course,
0:24:21 > 0:24:25presumably, most of your relatives had been killed?
0:24:25 > 0:24:28Yeah. Both sets of grandparents, who were in Poland,
0:24:28 > 0:24:30died in the death camps,
0:24:30 > 0:24:33not the concentration camps, the death camps.
0:24:33 > 0:24:37My mother was one of eight adult...
0:24:37 > 0:24:39So I had cousins and aunts
0:24:39 > 0:24:44and uncles, and they were completely wiped out.
0:24:46 > 0:24:48How did you come to terms with that?
0:24:48 > 0:24:50I mean, how are you now?
0:24:50 > 0:24:52It's in my shadow, and you never know
0:24:52 > 0:24:55when it's going to tap you on the shoulder.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58It's there always in your shadow.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01It's also got to be in our shadow.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03- Yeah.- Thank you very much. - Thank you, Paul. Thank you.
0:25:06 > 0:25:10Today's large gathering was for those who'd recorded testimony
0:25:10 > 0:25:12for the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation,
0:25:12 > 0:25:15their families and special guests,
0:25:15 > 0:25:18including Britain's Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22Through this project, your voices WILL always be heard
0:25:22 > 0:25:24for generations to come.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29Natasha Kaplinsky, who conducted the interviews with survivors,
0:25:29 > 0:25:32had her own personal reasons for being involved.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35Natasha, your connection with all this began,
0:25:35 > 0:25:38I remember it so well when we worked in the newsroom together,
0:25:38 > 0:25:40and you did a Who Do You Think You Are? for the BBC,
0:25:40 > 0:25:43and you found out about your Jewish ancestry,
0:25:43 > 0:25:44and it was pretty harrowing.
0:25:44 > 0:25:46It was a brutal experience.
0:25:46 > 0:25:47I mean, it was an amazing experience,
0:25:47 > 0:25:50but the Who Do You Think You Are? team took me to Belarus,
0:25:50 > 0:25:54where I discovered the most awful stories about my father's family
0:25:54 > 0:25:56and what had happened to them,
0:25:56 > 0:25:59and how many of them had been murdered by the Nazis,
0:25:59 > 0:26:02and as a consequence of that programme, many years later,
0:26:02 > 0:26:05I was contacted by the Prime Minister's Holocaust Commission
0:26:05 > 0:26:08to invite me to be one of the commissioners,
0:26:08 > 0:26:11and out of the commission came one of the findings,
0:26:11 > 0:26:15a key finding, which was we DID need to record survivor testimony,
0:26:15 > 0:26:17and I volunteered for that,
0:26:17 > 0:26:21and here we are now with 112 survivor testimonies taken.
0:26:21 > 0:26:25- And so important to do it before it's too late.- That is the point.
0:26:25 > 0:26:28We have lost a number of people who I've already interviewed.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31But it's been a release for a lot of people.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34I think that's been a really big part of this today
0:26:34 > 0:26:37and part of why they wanted to leave their testimony,
0:26:37 > 0:26:39so that they CAN make a difference,
0:26:39 > 0:26:41so that their suffering hasn't been in vain,
0:26:41 > 0:26:45and that we and the generations that follow us can learn
0:26:45 > 0:26:47from what they have been through.
0:26:47 > 0:26:49Natasha, I know they are all so grateful to you
0:26:49 > 0:26:52for taking their testimony. I think you've done a remarkable thing.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55Well, thank you. It's been a huge honour to meet all of them,
0:26:55 > 0:26:58but we've all cried thousands of tears.
0:26:58 > 0:26:59I'm sure you have.
0:27:05 > 0:27:09By 1942, over 20 main Nazi concentration camps
0:27:09 > 0:27:11were in operation,
0:27:11 > 0:27:15of which four were extermination camps, where an estimated
0:27:15 > 0:27:18three million Jews were killed in the gas chambers.
0:27:18 > 0:27:22The most notorious of all the death camps was Auschwitz.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25One young man who was liberated from there
0:27:25 > 0:27:29chose to keep one of the most hated symbols of the camps.
0:27:30 > 0:27:34There's nothing that brings to mind more instantly
0:27:34 > 0:27:38the concentration camps than the stripes on these trousers.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41- Absolutely.- And these belonged to your husband, Joe.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45Yes, these were the ones he was actually liberated in.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48- From Auschwitz.- From Auschwitz.
0:27:48 > 0:27:52How old was Joe when he went to Auschwitz?
0:27:52 > 0:27:5517. And he was in there for four years.
0:27:55 > 0:27:58He was 21 when he was liberated.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01And he weighed just 5st then, is that right?
0:28:01 > 0:28:03He weighed 5st.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07The reason Joe ended up in Auschwitz was that he...
0:28:07 > 0:28:11- he gave himself up, didn't he? - Yes, he did.- Tell me about that.
0:28:11 > 0:28:16His sister was taken to a concentration camp,
0:28:16 > 0:28:21and when he found out where she was,
0:28:21 > 0:28:25he actually went there and gave himself up,
0:28:25 > 0:28:27because he wanted to look after her.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30And part of the way he survived at Auschwitz was through boxing.
0:28:30 > 0:28:32How did he start?
0:28:32 > 0:28:33When he was a youngster,
0:28:33 > 0:28:38he was always interested in boxing and sports,
0:28:38 > 0:28:41and he boxed for the Germans
0:28:41 > 0:28:44because they offered him extra bread,
0:28:44 > 0:28:47and he wanted to give that to his sister.
0:28:47 > 0:28:52But then she had an illness and...
0:28:53 > 0:28:56- ..she died.- And how old was she when she died?
0:28:56 > 0:28:58She was 16.
0:28:58 > 0:28:59Gosh.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03- Can I pick these up?- Yes, of course.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09I have to say, just touching these is...
0:29:09 > 0:29:11is a very strange sensation.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14- Yes.- Now, what's interesting is that Joe wanted to keep them.
0:29:14 > 0:29:16Because I can imagine other people might have wanted to burn them.
0:29:16 > 0:29:18Yes, I can imagine that.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22But I think they became so much a part of him
0:29:22 > 0:29:26that I don't think he could ever part with them.
0:29:26 > 0:29:28They had to be there.
0:29:29 > 0:29:32I know at one stage you thought about giving these to a museum.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35I did actually take them to a museum,
0:29:35 > 0:29:38and then after about two or three weeks, I became really upset.
0:29:38 > 0:29:45I felt that I'd betrayed my husband, and I felt that
0:29:45 > 0:29:48I'd given part of him away.
0:29:49 > 0:29:51I couldn't...I couldn't...
0:29:52 > 0:29:54..cope with that.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58- And you had to keep them. - I had to have them back.
0:30:00 > 0:30:02We have a picture here, Cybil.
0:30:02 > 0:30:04- Yes.- Of his family.
0:30:04 > 0:30:06Yes, of his family.
0:30:06 > 0:30:08So, this is Joe here.
0:30:08 > 0:30:10Yeah, that's him, yes, there.
0:30:10 > 0:30:14And what happened to everyone else in this picture?
0:30:14 > 0:30:17- All gone.- Everyone else died in the camps?
0:30:17 > 0:30:20- Yes. Except...- Except for Joe. - ..Joe.
0:30:22 > 0:30:25How do you think the experiences that Joe went through
0:30:25 > 0:30:27in the concentration camp...
0:30:28 > 0:30:30..changed him as a person?
0:30:30 > 0:30:32When I was first married,
0:30:32 > 0:30:35there were quite a few episodes
0:30:35 > 0:30:39where suddenly he would wake up at night absolutely screaming
0:30:39 > 0:30:42and screaming and screaming,
0:30:42 > 0:30:47just reliving some of the terrible things that went on -
0:30:47 > 0:30:52watching people being killed, and the horrors
0:30:52 > 0:30:54that never seemed to leave him.
0:30:55 > 0:30:59But as he got older, he didn't mention it much any more.
0:31:01 > 0:31:04Well, Joe is the only survivor out of this picture.
0:31:04 > 0:31:06- Yes.- But because he survived...
0:31:07 > 0:31:09..you're here with your family.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13- Absolutely.- So, your daughter and two grandsons.- Absolutely.
0:31:13 > 0:31:16And so Joe lives on.
0:31:16 > 0:31:18He will always live on.
0:31:19 > 0:31:21I'm sure.
0:31:34 > 0:31:37When I'm looking at pictures on the roadshow, I tend to
0:31:37 > 0:31:40think of artists in their studios, they've been to art school,
0:31:40 > 0:31:43and they're creating these beautiful things and it's all wonderful
0:31:43 > 0:31:47but, here, we're very forcibly reminded
0:31:47 > 0:31:50that people are compelled to make works of art
0:31:50 > 0:31:53in the most extraordinary of circumstances.
0:31:53 > 0:31:57In this case, a concentration camp, Theresienstadt,
0:31:57 > 0:32:00in the north of the Czech Republic, as it is now,
0:32:00 > 0:32:02what the Germans called Sudetenland,
0:32:02 > 0:32:05and that is where your mother and father,
0:32:05 > 0:32:09in this photograph here, found themselves in the mid-'40s.
0:32:09 > 0:32:12What's most interesting are these extraordinary pictures
0:32:12 > 0:32:15that your father, Erich Lichtblau,
0:32:15 > 0:32:18did whilst he was actually in the camp.
0:32:18 > 0:32:21He made one cartoon every night...
0:32:21 > 0:32:25hidden in the upper bunk bed he had.
0:32:25 > 0:32:30He stole papers from where he worked, and paint.
0:32:30 > 0:32:34He brought them to his bunk bed and he painted what he saw -
0:32:34 > 0:32:36that's what he said when he was criticised,
0:32:36 > 0:32:39because he made it full of humour and empathy.
0:32:39 > 0:32:43- They're cartoons.- Yeah, he said, "I just painted what I saw."
0:32:43 > 0:32:46But a very dangerous thing to do. I mean, if he'd been
0:32:46 > 0:32:49- caught by the Nazis...- Exactly.- ..he would have been off to the East...
0:32:49 > 0:32:52Not off to the East, he would have been killed right away.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55- Straight away.- Yeah, and this is the first, maybe,
0:32:55 > 0:32:58because he shows here the night he arrived at the camp,
0:32:58 > 0:33:02in the evening, and he's with fever and he sits on the floor,
0:33:02 > 0:33:07because there's no free bunk bed, and a man, he looks like a doctor,
0:33:07 > 0:33:12says to him, "What you need is vitamin P," which meant, in German,
0:33:12 > 0:33:15"protection". Yeah, vitamin P.
0:33:15 > 0:33:19But this drawing is a drawing that he did after the experience,
0:33:19 > 0:33:22because he kept coming back to the drawings
0:33:22 > 0:33:23he actually did in the camps,
0:33:23 > 0:33:26and reworking them and reliving that experience
0:33:26 > 0:33:27for the rest of his life,
0:33:27 > 0:33:30almost as a form of therapy, reliving the experience.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34Exactly. This is maybe the third series he did.
0:33:34 > 0:33:40And this is what happened - after he made about 130 pieces like this,
0:33:40 > 0:33:42one day he came to his workplace
0:33:42 > 0:33:47and he found that four of his artist friends disappeared.
0:33:47 > 0:33:49And, so, when he met my mother the same week,
0:33:49 > 0:33:52I don't know, because they were separated in different barracks
0:33:52 > 0:33:57at the same camp, he told her he's going to burn all the pictures,
0:33:57 > 0:33:59and my mother said...
0:33:59 > 0:34:02- No.- "I forbid. You are not going to do that
0:34:02 > 0:34:05"because if we manage to survive this...
0:34:06 > 0:34:09"..nobody will believe us, what we have been through."
0:34:09 > 0:34:12It's an important record. Here is another one,
0:34:12 > 0:34:15where you've got an old lady picking through a rubbish heap
0:34:15 > 0:34:18for scraps to eat, isn't she? And what does "Konkurenti" mean?
0:34:18 > 0:34:21"Konkurrenz", which means competition.
0:34:21 > 0:34:22Potato peels here,
0:34:22 > 0:34:27and the rats and the birds and the old lady are fighting for the food.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30So, this is another one that he did later.
0:34:30 > 0:34:34- Yeah.- And the thing was, why did he do them later?
0:34:35 > 0:34:41Well, because... When my mother forbade him to burn them,
0:34:41 > 0:34:46they cut all...all captions, they cut all the words,
0:34:46 > 0:34:47they cut every...
0:34:47 > 0:34:50- This is an original. - Yeah, and this is the original.
0:34:50 > 0:34:52- Exactly.- I see.
0:34:52 > 0:34:54By cutting them up, storing them separately,
0:34:54 > 0:34:56you remove the narrative,
0:34:56 > 0:35:00and the Nazis might not realise exactly what he's done.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03They'll see three separate pictures that don't mean anything separately.
0:35:03 > 0:35:05Put them together, you've got the story.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08- The moral of the tale.- Yeah, and when they survived after the war,
0:35:08 > 0:35:14they went back, they found it and my father, he never stopped doing this.
0:35:14 > 0:35:18The way I see it is they got murdered by the Nazis
0:35:18 > 0:35:20but they kept living another 60 years
0:35:20 > 0:35:23because they were never alive after that.
0:35:23 > 0:35:25So you think that,
0:35:25 > 0:35:27in Theresienstadt, he lost his life?
0:35:27 > 0:35:29Ja, definitely.
0:35:29 > 0:35:31They kept living. I was born after that.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34And they created a life for us,
0:35:34 > 0:35:36but they never lived.
0:35:51 > 0:35:53Many of the survivors attending today's reception
0:35:53 > 0:35:57have brought with them precious items from the Holocaust.
0:35:59 > 0:36:01I was nine years old
0:36:01 > 0:36:04and I weighed 3.5st and I had no hair,
0:36:04 > 0:36:05and we had nothing,
0:36:05 > 0:36:09and, eventually, we were repatriated
0:36:09 > 0:36:12back to where I was born, in Yugoslavia,
0:36:12 > 0:36:15only to find out my whole family was killed.
0:36:15 > 0:36:18And we literally had nothing, and it was my birthday coming up,
0:36:18 > 0:36:21and the doctors gave me six months to live,
0:36:21 > 0:36:25and my grandmother had a gold tooth filling.
0:36:25 > 0:36:28If it was in the front, the Nazis would have taken it,
0:36:28 > 0:36:31but it was a filling in a back tooth,
0:36:31 > 0:36:34so she went to the jeweller and she had this made for me.
0:36:34 > 0:36:37It's a little four-leaf clover,
0:36:37 > 0:36:39and in the back it says "Omama",
0:36:39 > 0:36:42which is Hungarian, means grandmother,
0:36:42 > 0:36:45and 10th January 1947.
0:36:45 > 0:36:46And this I have
0:36:46 > 0:36:48carried with me everywhere.
0:36:48 > 0:36:53This was the most amazing birthday present because we just had nothing,
0:36:53 > 0:36:54except our lives and, of course,
0:36:54 > 0:36:57that is what it's all about, isn't it?
0:37:01 > 0:37:04Well, this is a little teddy bear.
0:37:04 > 0:37:06You might find it difficult to recognise,
0:37:06 > 0:37:11but to me it is very precious because my mother packed it with me
0:37:11 > 0:37:14when I came to England, in a small case.
0:37:14 > 0:37:18It's the only toy that I had before I left Germany.
0:37:18 > 0:37:24The agreement was that the parents could not come along with me.
0:37:24 > 0:37:26Now, this meant, of course,
0:37:26 > 0:37:30that my parents were still subject to the Nazi...
0:37:32 > 0:37:38..this hate of Jews and anything to do with Jews, and, so,
0:37:38 > 0:37:43when, in fact, they got notice that they were going to Auschwitz,
0:37:43 > 0:37:47they decided that they were going to commit suicide.
0:37:47 > 0:37:49Well, I don't know what...
0:37:49 > 0:37:52It must have been terrible for them,
0:37:52 > 0:37:57but I was in such good hands in England that, in fact...
0:37:59 > 0:38:00..when finally I heard,
0:38:00 > 0:38:04it didn't have the impact that it would have done
0:38:04 > 0:38:06if I'd known at the time.
0:38:06 > 0:38:08It's in fact the only toy
0:38:08 > 0:38:13that I have, and that's why it's especially precious to me.
0:38:15 > 0:38:20Most of the survivors of the camps kept nothing from those dark days,
0:38:20 > 0:38:22so even meagre items from the time
0:38:22 > 0:38:26assume a great importance, as Natasha discovered.
0:38:27 > 0:38:32Zahava, your story has stayed with me for all sorts of reasons,
0:38:32 > 0:38:35not least because you were able to keep
0:38:35 > 0:38:38an enormous number of items from that period of your life,
0:38:38 > 0:38:41and you've brought a selection of them with you today.
0:38:41 > 0:38:44How was it that you kept so many things?
0:38:44 > 0:38:48Well, it was my mother who really kept these things, but never,
0:38:48 > 0:38:50never spoke to me about it
0:38:50 > 0:38:54because she didn't want me to look back on what I had gone through,
0:38:54 > 0:38:57and just to try to be positive.
0:38:57 > 0:39:01And these items represent different parts of your journey, don't they?
0:39:01 > 0:39:04- Yes, absolutely.- Let's start with this. This was a photograph
0:39:04 > 0:39:08- of you and your brother.- Yeah, that was when he was very young, a baby,
0:39:08 > 0:39:12but he was a very young child when he was given away into hiding.
0:39:12 > 0:39:14Let's talk about this photograph,
0:39:14 > 0:39:17because this possibly was one of the most important things
0:39:17 > 0:39:20- that your mother ever had. - Absolutely, because, for her,
0:39:20 > 0:39:24because they had given my brother away at the age of 16 months
0:39:24 > 0:39:27into hiding, not knowing whether they'll ever see him again,
0:39:27 > 0:39:33and this little photo my mother received in a bag of raw beans.
0:39:33 > 0:39:37And what made her even think, but, probably, she thought,
0:39:37 > 0:39:41"Why should anyone send me a bag of raw beans?
0:39:41 > 0:39:44"We've got no facilities to cook here."
0:39:44 > 0:39:48So she sifted through the bag of beans until she found that photo,
0:39:48 > 0:39:51and that was a sign that my little brother was alive.
0:39:51 > 0:39:55What that photograph must have meant to a mother who was separated from
0:39:55 > 0:39:57- their son...- Yeah, yeah. - Extraordinary.
0:39:57 > 0:40:00Food was so important, wasn't it, Zahava?
0:40:00 > 0:40:04Your journey took you from Westerbork to Bergen-Belsen,
0:40:04 > 0:40:07and these are your dishes from the camps.
0:40:07 > 0:40:09One for my father,
0:40:09 > 0:40:12my mother and one for me,
0:40:12 > 0:40:14and once a day there was some kind of food
0:40:14 > 0:40:18given to us, but it was just...
0:40:19 > 0:40:21..non mentionable.
0:40:21 > 0:40:24And in the morning, they gave us a kind of coloured stuff,
0:40:24 > 0:40:26which they called coffee,
0:40:26 > 0:40:33and then nothing until later on, and that was served in these bowls.
0:40:33 > 0:40:37Now, this was a plait, and this is your hair that your mother kept.
0:40:37 > 0:40:39Yeah, to my mother, it was very important,
0:40:39 > 0:40:43and she always looked after that for many, many years
0:40:43 > 0:40:46because my mother used to do my plaits every day,
0:40:46 > 0:40:49but she kept the hair all the time.
0:40:49 > 0:40:51On one occasion, during the night,
0:40:51 > 0:40:54because we slept on the third,
0:40:54 > 0:40:58on the top bunk, and there was a beam separating
0:40:58 > 0:41:03another couple from my mother and me, and on the beam
0:41:03 > 0:41:09was a bucket with excrement of the lady who was very seriously ill,
0:41:09 > 0:41:11and during the night,
0:41:11 > 0:41:15she was so ill and she knocked the bucket over,
0:41:15 > 0:41:19and it came all over my hair, so my mother was so upset about it,
0:41:19 > 0:41:22so she queued up the next morning, instead of six,
0:41:22 > 0:41:25when they used to deliver some coffee,
0:41:25 > 0:41:29she went early at five o'clock that she would get a bit more fluid
0:41:29 > 0:41:31to try and get it out of my hair.
0:41:31 > 0:41:34And she kept my hair right until the end.
0:41:34 > 0:41:36She was an extraordinary woman, your mother, wasn't she?
0:41:36 > 0:41:38She was, she really was exceptional.
0:41:38 > 0:41:43Actually, and this is a very important story,
0:41:43 > 0:41:47why I am sitting here is because I was born in Palestine
0:41:47 > 0:41:49so I was British protected.
0:41:49 > 0:41:56It was literally...we were just outside the train of a cattle cart
0:41:56 > 0:42:01going to Auschwitz and somebody said, "This is family Kanarek,"
0:42:01 > 0:42:04because the three of us were standing there together,
0:42:04 > 0:42:08and we were told, "Don't go onto the wagon
0:42:08 > 0:42:10"because you've been taken off this transport."
0:42:10 > 0:42:12Had he come a minute later,
0:42:12 > 0:42:15we would have been inside the cart
0:42:15 > 0:42:18and nobody would have known where to find us.
0:42:18 > 0:42:20It was the most extraordinary story,
0:42:20 > 0:42:23that piece of luck, that somebody plucked you
0:42:23 > 0:42:26from what was going to be a transportation to Auschwitz.
0:42:26 > 0:42:28- Yeah.- Zahava, thank you very much
0:42:28 > 0:42:30for sharing your stories again today.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33The first time I met you, you had an enormous impact on me,
0:42:33 > 0:42:35and it's the same again today.
0:42:35 > 0:42:37- Thank you.- Thank you.
0:42:49 > 0:42:55Well, we have a ring in a circular silver box, a photograph or two,
0:42:55 > 0:43:01a document or two, telling the story of an extraordinary woman,
0:43:01 > 0:43:06and certainly a story that most people will not have known about.
0:43:06 > 0:43:08Tell me about her.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11This story is about our aunt, Jane Haining,
0:43:11 > 0:43:17who was a young girl working and living in Scotland, Glasgow,
0:43:17 > 0:43:20and she received a calling. She knew her life's work
0:43:20 > 0:43:23was to work with young children, and she worked with
0:43:23 > 0:43:28the Church of Scotland and she decided that she would become
0:43:28 > 0:43:31a matron in a children's home in Budapest.
0:43:31 > 0:43:32- In Hungary.- In Hungary.
0:43:32 > 0:43:35Most of the children in the school, they were Christian children,
0:43:35 > 0:43:39but there were a lot of Jewish there too, a lot of them were orphans,
0:43:39 > 0:43:44and Jane just didn't discriminate between Jews or Christians.
0:43:44 > 0:43:47All children were children of God, she used to say.
0:43:47 > 0:43:51Would it be true to say that all the children really adored her,
0:43:51 > 0:43:54that she was one of those matronly figures who had the authority,
0:43:54 > 0:43:58but also somebody who had a certain bearing that you respected
0:43:58 > 0:44:01- and you liked her, too?- She loved them and of course she learnt...
0:44:01 > 0:44:03She spent quite a time
0:44:03 > 0:44:07learning Hungarian so that she could speak fluent with the children.
0:44:07 > 0:44:08Did she make visits home
0:44:08 > 0:44:11between then and the outbreak of the war, or...
0:44:11 > 0:44:14She did. Well, she made two visits we know.
0:44:14 > 0:44:17This picture was her home and holiday, 1939,
0:44:17 > 0:44:22and war broke out. Jane was asked not to go back, but she felt,
0:44:22 > 0:44:24oh, gosh, her children would need her.
0:44:24 > 0:44:28As it's quoted, if they needed her in days of sunshine,
0:44:28 > 0:44:31how much more would they need her in days of darkness.
0:44:31 > 0:44:34So, tell me what happened with regard to the change
0:44:34 > 0:44:37that led to her being taken by the Nazis?
0:44:37 > 0:44:39What actually happened?
0:44:39 > 0:44:43Because there was Jewish children in the orphanage,
0:44:43 > 0:44:46she'd sew yellow stars on the Jewish children's outfits.
0:44:46 > 0:44:49She also wanted to maintain contact with home
0:44:49 > 0:44:51and she would listen to the BBC radio.
0:44:51 > 0:44:53She kept in contact with home.
0:44:53 > 0:44:55They had to try and find things to accuse her of,
0:44:55 > 0:44:58and that's what she was accused of, those things.
0:44:58 > 0:45:00There was a story, wasn't there,
0:45:00 > 0:45:04apparently that the son-in-law of the cook...
0:45:04 > 0:45:06- He stole some fruit. - Stole some fruit.
0:45:06 > 0:45:09- Jane scolded him.- Told him off. - Told him off.
0:45:09 > 0:45:12He wasn't going to be told off,
0:45:12 > 0:45:16and he goes to the Gestapo and he reports her.
0:45:16 > 0:45:18And the following day...
0:45:18 > 0:45:22- She's arrested.- ..the Gestapo come and arrest her.- Mm-hm.
0:45:22 > 0:45:26But again, she felt safe because some of the children report
0:45:26 > 0:45:29that she turned to them as she left and said,
0:45:29 > 0:45:31"Don't worry, I'll be back in half an hour."
0:45:31 > 0:45:32"I'll be back in half an hour."
0:45:32 > 0:45:35She was so sure nothing was going to happen to her.
0:45:35 > 0:45:36That somehow she was not...
0:45:36 > 0:45:41But she goes to Auschwitz and of course...
0:45:41 > 0:45:42Dies there.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45But she sacrificed, you know, herself for her work
0:45:45 > 0:45:47and her children.
0:45:49 > 0:45:53This is where I can tell you a bit about the ring, can't I?
0:45:53 > 0:45:56- Wonderful.- Where do you think she might have got it from?
0:45:56 > 0:45:59We think perhaps she was given it from her employer.
0:45:59 > 0:46:00- In Scotland.- In Scotland.
0:46:00 > 0:46:04In Scotland. So this is a tangible link between her and home.
0:46:04 > 0:46:05- It's not.- No?
0:46:05 > 0:46:10It's not. I've looked inside the mount and there is a very clear,
0:46:10 > 0:46:13distinct mark. It's an Austro-Hungarian stamp.
0:46:13 > 0:46:18- Gosh.- So, I think at some point from the time
0:46:18 > 0:46:21that she was out there until her removal to Auschwitz,
0:46:21 > 0:46:24she made friends, or whatever it may have been,
0:46:24 > 0:46:28and someone, probably in gratitude for the extraordinary kindness,
0:46:28 > 0:46:33gave her the garnet ring, which has now become something
0:46:33 > 0:46:38of a lightning conductor between now and this redoubtable woman,
0:46:38 > 0:46:42who was one of the very rare British people
0:46:42 > 0:46:45- to lose their lives in the camp. - Indeed.
0:46:45 > 0:46:48I'm very privileged to see it. Thank you very much indeed.
0:46:48 > 0:46:50- Thank you.- Thank you.- Thank you.
0:46:59 > 0:47:05I was born in Holland, in Arnhem, a very small Jewish community
0:47:05 > 0:47:08and I've brought you a picture of my grandmother
0:47:08 > 0:47:12and a picture of my grandfather, who both perished in the Holocaust.
0:47:12 > 0:47:15This was their menorah.
0:47:15 > 0:47:17This is all we have left from them.
0:47:17 > 0:47:20It was buried in a neighbour's garden,
0:47:20 > 0:47:23and it was a struggle to get it back.
0:47:23 > 0:47:27My father had to dig it up with his pals from the Dutch resistance.
0:47:27 > 0:47:34It was wrapped in sack cloths and all sorts, and it was green,
0:47:34 > 0:47:35and my sister and me polished it
0:47:35 > 0:47:38till we got it back more or less in this condition,
0:47:38 > 0:47:42and we have been lighting it every single year
0:47:42 > 0:47:44at the Festival of Lights.
0:47:44 > 0:47:45After my mother passed away,
0:47:45 > 0:47:49I took it home with me and now I light it every single year
0:47:49 > 0:47:54on the Festival of Lights, and, obviously, it's extremely precious.
0:47:57 > 0:48:00I have a little gold pendant...
0:48:00 > 0:48:06what survived, together with me, Auschwitz.
0:48:06 > 0:48:10I think that is the only gold
0:48:10 > 0:48:13what went in in the camp
0:48:13 > 0:48:17and came out with the original owner.
0:48:17 > 0:48:23When I was in the camp, it was in the heel of the shoe,
0:48:23 > 0:48:25but the heel, with time,
0:48:25 > 0:48:32was worn out, so what could I do with this little pendant?
0:48:32 > 0:48:35I had even not a piece of paper where to put it.
0:48:35 > 0:48:41So, I put it every day in this little piece of bread
0:48:41 > 0:48:44what we had and like that,
0:48:44 > 0:48:47that survived the camp.
0:48:47 > 0:48:51And I wear it every day now.
0:48:51 > 0:48:56That is a link between the past, with my family,
0:48:56 > 0:49:02and with the future, with my children and grandchildren.
0:49:11 > 0:49:13So, as World War II came to an end,
0:49:13 > 0:49:16as we had fought our way across Europe,
0:49:16 > 0:49:19in April 1945,
0:49:19 > 0:49:25- the British Army came across a camp called Belsen.- Hmm.
0:49:26 > 0:49:30The problem in Belsen at that point was the overcrowding
0:49:30 > 0:49:33had given most people typhus,
0:49:33 > 0:49:36so they said to the British, "We have a problem.
0:49:36 > 0:49:41"At the end of this road is a camp, and everybody in it has typhus.
0:49:41 > 0:49:45"We don't have the infrastructure to deal with this any more."
0:49:45 > 0:49:47So, the British Army put together
0:49:47 > 0:49:50I suppose what could be called a relief package of doctors...
0:49:52 > 0:49:55..padres, all sorts of people who can go to this place
0:49:55 > 0:49:58and try and sort out the mess. And they reached that camp
0:49:58 > 0:50:01and they reached... one can only imagine
0:50:01 > 0:50:04a sight that no-one can imagine,
0:50:04 > 0:50:08and one of those people, a padre, was your ancestor.
0:50:08 > 0:50:11- Yes.- Who was he to you? - He was my father's cousin.
0:50:11 > 0:50:14His name was Father John, he was a Catholic priest
0:50:14 > 0:50:17and he was with a hospital team, as far as we know,
0:50:17 > 0:50:21and he went in at the end of the first week and did what he could,
0:50:21 > 0:50:25with not just the survivors, but also with the Germans, as well.
0:50:25 > 0:50:29What we have there on the table is what they made to thank him.
0:50:29 > 0:50:33So, this jewellery, it was made in Belsen itself.
0:50:33 > 0:50:35In Belsen itself, for him.
0:50:35 > 0:50:38They didn't have many things to use so it was what they had.
0:50:38 > 0:50:42Some of it was the wire from the Red Cross parcels.
0:50:42 > 0:50:44The cameo was made from the handle of a toothbrush.
0:50:44 > 0:50:47- Really?- Because they were bone at the time, apparently.
0:50:47 > 0:50:51They knew he had a sister, so the gifts were for her, not for him.
0:50:51 > 0:50:55What an incredible thing to come out of something
0:50:55 > 0:50:57- that was so dreadful, really.- Yes.
0:50:57 > 0:51:00Now, we have this photograph of a German soldier.
0:51:00 > 0:51:03- Yes, he was a pastor. - The German was a pastor?
0:51:03 > 0:51:05The German is a pastor, yes.
0:51:05 > 0:51:07And what sort of relationship did your ancestor
0:51:07 > 0:51:09have with these guards?
0:51:09 > 0:51:11With the guards, he certainly, as a Catholic priest...
0:51:11 > 0:51:13They had been Catholic and he heard their confessions,
0:51:13 > 0:51:16so he knew, in exact detail, what they had done.
0:51:16 > 0:51:18What did he think about that?
0:51:18 > 0:51:21He said, "We don't know how we would react in the same circumstances.
0:51:21 > 0:51:25"We don't know why they behaved as they did. And who are we to judge?"
0:51:25 > 0:51:28And he said, "You have to forgive them."
0:51:28 > 0:51:30Wow. Now, that is magnanimous standing in amongst...
0:51:30 > 0:51:34- Yes.- ..that place.- And he kept to that the rest of his life.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37He also, I understand, held the first mass for many years.
0:51:37 > 0:51:39Yes, you have the picture there.
0:51:39 > 0:51:42- There it is.- The Germans were invited, as well.
0:51:42 > 0:51:45He had no baby Jesus, he had to use a doll
0:51:45 > 0:51:48and, apparently, the Germans are in tears.
0:51:48 > 0:51:51It was the first mass, I think, since 1936.
0:51:51 > 0:51:53To have someone who was there who looked at it
0:51:53 > 0:51:55in such a dispassionate way,
0:51:55 > 0:51:59that actually must have been an incredibly hard thing to do,
0:51:59 > 0:52:03because most people's reaction when the British soldiers arrived was,
0:52:03 > 0:52:06"Let's kill all these Germans straightaway."
0:52:06 > 0:52:08Yes, you can understand that.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11But he was very much a very strong Christian.
0:52:11 > 0:52:15- And that's how he lived. - He must have been an amazing man.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18Yes, well, obviously, the things we have here are thank-you presents.
0:52:18 > 0:52:20The portrait that you see
0:52:20 > 0:52:22was another thank-you present.
0:52:22 > 0:52:26That was done at Heidenau, and then the icon was also Bergen-Belsen.
0:52:26 > 0:52:30So, these objects, so lovingly given to Father John,
0:52:30 > 0:52:33- if I may be so bold as to say that? - Please do.- What do they mean to you?
0:52:33 > 0:52:36Well, they represent what he was as a person.
0:52:36 > 0:52:38The fact that he could listen to people
0:52:38 > 0:52:40who had done some of the worst things in the world,
0:52:40 > 0:52:43that he could help people who were in total distress,
0:52:43 > 0:52:45who had nothing to do, nowhere to go,
0:52:45 > 0:52:48- lives almost totally destroyed. - Yeah.
0:52:48 > 0:52:52It says a lot about the man, and we need more people like that.
0:52:55 > 0:52:59After the war, many people were displaced and homeless.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02The British Government offered to take in 1,000 young orphans
0:53:02 > 0:53:04who had survived the camps.
0:53:04 > 0:53:08But the Nazi killing machine had been so effective,
0:53:08 > 0:53:11only 732 could be found.
0:53:11 > 0:53:14With no families left to look after them,
0:53:14 > 0:53:17they were airlifted to Britain and resettled together.
0:53:18 > 0:53:21Now, we started talking about Kindertransport
0:53:21 > 0:53:25and children leaving Germany before the war.
0:53:25 > 0:53:30In a way, we're finishing in a full circle, because we're now
0:53:30 > 0:53:34talking about children coming to Britain after the war.
0:53:34 > 0:53:41In 1945, 732 surviving orphan children came to Britain
0:53:41 > 0:53:47and we are surrounded, here, by family members from that group,
0:53:47 > 0:53:50by four fantastic quilts,
0:53:50 > 0:53:54which are all to do with the story of that group
0:53:54 > 0:53:57and their subsequent lives and families
0:53:57 > 0:54:00as they've lived on into our time.
0:54:00 > 0:54:02How did this come about?
0:54:02 > 0:54:07Well, it was the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the camps in 2015,
0:54:07 > 0:54:10and the second generation, the children of survivors,
0:54:10 > 0:54:14wanted to do something to commemorate this special occasion
0:54:14 > 0:54:17and to honour their survivor parents and grandparents,
0:54:17 > 0:54:21so we were wondering what could we make that would include everybody?
0:54:21 > 0:54:23And the idea of the memory quilt came about,
0:54:23 > 0:54:27so that families could make squares together with their survivor parents
0:54:27 > 0:54:30or the children could make the squares,
0:54:30 > 0:54:35and we wanted to include all 732 of the children
0:54:35 > 0:54:37that came over in 1945 and '46.
0:54:37 > 0:54:41And so every square was made by a family who did whatever they wanted.
0:54:41 > 0:54:45- Yes.- And, in a way, it's a story of celebration, isn't it?
0:54:45 > 0:54:48Absolutely, it's triumph over adversity.
0:54:48 > 0:54:50These people came to England with absolutely nothing.
0:54:50 > 0:54:53They were young, they had been through terrible horrors
0:54:53 > 0:54:56and they came to England and made new lives and rebuilt their lives.
0:54:56 > 0:54:59And they were called "the boys", but they weren't all, were they?
0:54:59 > 0:55:04No, out of the 732, there were 80 girls, but as a result,
0:55:04 > 0:55:07they were a close-knit group known as "the boys".
0:55:07 > 0:55:10Now, you've both got stories, you've both got squares.
0:55:10 > 0:55:11- Can we see those?- Yeah.
0:55:13 > 0:55:14Sue, show me yours first.
0:55:14 > 0:55:18So, this square represents my father, Bob Obuchowski.
0:55:18 > 0:55:22He started life in a small town in Poland called Ozorkow
0:55:22 > 0:55:25and he went through the ghettos and the concentration camps,
0:55:25 > 0:55:27including Auschwitz,
0:55:27 > 0:55:30and he was liberated in Theresienstadt
0:55:30 > 0:55:32and came to this country.
0:55:32 > 0:55:36He was welcomed in this country and he loved this country
0:55:36 > 0:55:40and his first days in Windermere he says he never forgot,
0:55:40 > 0:55:45particularly marmalade - he'd never tasted marmalade before.
0:55:45 > 0:55:47And it carries on through,
0:55:47 > 0:55:50he met my mum and married her and had a family
0:55:50 > 0:55:53and he became a master upholsterer,
0:55:53 > 0:55:57which is why we've set our square as a living room
0:55:57 > 0:56:00and these figures represent my mum and my dad on the sofa.
0:56:00 > 0:56:03It just represents him, really.
0:56:03 > 0:56:07- Well, it's his life.- It's his life and he ended his life in Redbridge,
0:56:07 > 0:56:11a London borough, so very different to Ozorkow in Poland.
0:56:11 > 0:56:14- And, Julia, yours? - This is my father's square.
0:56:14 > 0:56:17We chose the Carpathian Mountains as a backdrop.
0:56:17 > 0:56:19He came from Czechoslovakia.
0:56:19 > 0:56:23This is a photo of him that was taken when he was transferred
0:56:23 > 0:56:25from Auschwitz to Buchenwald.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28And this is a photo taken of him in the 1970s.
0:56:28 > 0:56:31Whenever he used to walk into a room, he always used to say,
0:56:31 > 0:56:33"Hello, you lucky people,"
0:56:33 > 0:56:36and I think he probably thought that we were lucky.
0:56:36 > 0:56:40It's a very powerful part of this celebration
0:56:40 > 0:56:44that amongst the families who are with us today
0:56:44 > 0:56:47are three survivors
0:56:47 > 0:56:49of those original 732,
0:56:49 > 0:56:53two gentlemen and a lady are with us today,
0:56:53 > 0:56:56along with later generations.
0:56:56 > 0:57:00Now, it seems to me the job you've given yourself is to be guardians
0:57:00 > 0:57:05of the testimonies of all these... I say "boys".
0:57:05 > 0:57:08You've given us something that we can all understand
0:57:08 > 0:57:13- and take forward into the future. - Absolutely.- Thank you.- Thank you.
0:57:23 > 0:57:25It's been a remarkable day,
0:57:25 > 0:57:28and while many of the stories we've heard have, of course,
0:57:28 > 0:57:30been intensely sad,
0:57:30 > 0:57:33others have been of extraordinary courage and resilience,
0:57:33 > 0:57:36and all the survivors of the Holocaust,
0:57:36 > 0:57:38be they first or third generation,
0:57:38 > 0:57:40are all playing their part in ensuring that the memories
0:57:40 > 0:57:44and lessons of that most painful of times
0:57:44 > 0:57:47will not be forgotten or repeated.
0:57:47 > 0:57:48Bye-bye.