Jerry Springer . . . Is ENGLISH by birth?! Who Do You Think You Are?

[expatinscotland]

OMG!

I had NO idea.

He was born in London, the son of two German Jewish refugees.

[expatinscotland]

Wow, they lost a lot of relatives in the camps .

His mother was so beautiful.

[expatinscotland]

THIS IS ABSOLUTELY HEART-BREAKING!

[differentID]

I always get weepy with anything about the holocaust, the shoah, especially

[twinsetandpearls]

I am about to start watching so will be 15 mins behind in my comments

[expatinscotland]

Jerry's parents were allowed to come to the UK because they had a sponsor.

But for Jews who had no sponsor, they had to advertise in the papers as domestic help - a man from a Jewish centre in London showed Jerry some of these ads. So desperate! So unbelievably sad.

And Jerry almost fell out when he said his dad said they wanted to come to the UK because the Channel was harder to cross, he knew they would always be chased. What a horrible feeling that must have been!

[expatinscotland]

How terrifying for his mother, hiding out in the back whilst their shop in Germany/Poland was attacked because they were Jews.

[expatinscotland]

Turn it on!

It's way better than that silly bint Patsy Kensit.

[expatinscotland]

[TwoIfBySea]

There was a programme on BBC4 the other week, Thirties In Colour and if it is repeated it is worth watching.

An American Jewish family visited relatives in Poland just before WW2. The father had a colour-film camera and took footage of their visit. Apart from the Americans every last person on the film, from the old grandfather to the little 3 year old nieces, all were taken away in a truck never to be seen again. The family later found out that the grandfather had refused to get in the truck and so he was shot, where he stood.

Heart-breaking, horrible but necessary to remember such evil. Watching the film, and knowing their fate - rather than just a figure of how many died, seeing them as people and not numbers is going to be the important factor.

[expatinscotland]

His first cousin said Jerry's mother knew her mother had been sent to a ghetto, but then of course, she didn't know anymore.

Her mother was later sent to a camp.

I can only imagine how guilty his mother must have felt, but how her own mother wanted to see her child get out to safety, even if she could not.

And who would have thought, watching the Jerry Springer Show ?

[expatinscotland]

This is so incredibly sad.

[differentID]

I have tears pricking the backs of my eyes.

[Chuffinnora]

Heartbreaking.

[Chuffinnora]

I cried with Jeremy Paxman when he found out about the tough life his great grandmother had but this is unbearable.
Its the sort of thing you don't want to find out about, to look away, but of course we must never do this, never forget.

[PortAndLemon]

Did you see the Stephen Fry one? He tracked down what had happened to his mother's (I think) cousins, who were young children -- there was a photograph of them shortly before the war.

[TheMoistWorldOfSeptimusQuench]

So, so moving.

WDYTYA is such a brilliant format.

[suedonim]

I can't stop the tears from running.

[TwoIfBySea]

Anyone else think that this would be a good format for history to be taught?

[Chuffinnora]

Yes, definitely.

[expatinscotland]

I knew that Jerry had been a successful lawyer and then the mayor of Cincinnati, pretty common knowledge and he's very active in supporting the university where he attended law school.

But this . . .

[nell12]

Heartbreaking...

His words rang true when he mentioned how lucky we all are just not to have to be constantly running.

[tiredemma]

bloody saddest programme I have watched in a long time.

[differentID]

What I find so sad is the fact that within 2 decades there will be so few people left alive who will remember the actual facts of the camps.

[expatinscotland]

I'll never look the same way at Jerry again.

He is, on the whole, much admired in the US, because he is pretty funny, he's very clever and resourceful, qualities which are held in high esteem there.

[Chuffinnora]

All schools could show this programme (and all the others in this series)to children in history lessons. It makes so real to talk about this mans grandparents rather than 6 million faceless nameless Jews.