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.

not everyone, though. Dh went on a VERY scary German exchange trip and stayed with a family who were very proud of the grandad who had been in the SS. The grandad showed him all his memorabilia. Dh kept very, very, very quiet for the whole week until he could escape.

After the war there was a mass denial by the germans about the atrocities carried out against the jews yet you constantly hear of stories like tonight where ordinary jews were attcked, spat on and all the rest from at least 1933 onwards. 12 years of nazi rule and they say we did not know?
I take your point cargirl about what would you do but people in the UK did stand against Moseleys fascists and in part that is why they did not come to power in the UK.
I do believe you have to make a stand at some point.When you talk about sacrifice no one sacrificed more than the soldiers who died in WW2 for the same cause.

I had the exact same thought edam.

That sounds terrible Edam.

BGDi i also believe you have to make a stand at some point too but I also believe that herd mentality is something that is in us all deep inside. That really scares me.

twoifbyea i did think that about the format- in fact, after a dat when I toght teaching was slipping away, this programme reminded me exactly why I want to do it, and made me determined again.

I can't even begin to understand the mindset of that awful teacher- terrible. And I fail to believe the 'we didn't know' thing but we have to keep in our minds that te generation of WW2 is a dying one- my Grandad who is that generation (not german) is 85- and with our kids we have to find a way of emphasising the sub human horror of the holocaust whilst not imparting any hatred to this generation of Germans. The hatred has to be of intolerance and all it fosters.

I've always wondered that too MMJ.

good post Peachy

I recently read Vikram Seth's book, Two Lives, about his uncle & aunt and their sufferings due to losing family in the Holocaust. I'd really recommend it - it isn't unremitting gloom.

What is frightening about the way the German people responded to Hitler is the reaction of the intelligentsia, who swallowed his spin, hook, line and sinker. No wonder the ordinary man in the street felt unable to fight against his ideas. Istr a Mumsnetter a while ago saying they tried to make a series of WDYTYA in Germany but it was abandoned because almost all the people selected had skeletons in the closet they didn't want revealed.

Thinking of post-war guilt, Bernard Schlink's The Reader is excellent. I think it's being made into a film. And another book, The Dark Room by Rachel Seiffert.

What a marvellous, gut-wrenching programme. How brave of Jerry S to continue with it (in constrast to patsy K who had to be persuaded to return after 'discovering' her family's links with the Krays). I was near tears throughout and howled when he met his cousin. The personal in this made it all so much more real somehow.

I texted my sil 5 mins in (she is history teacher) - she is gonna tape the repeat and use it in class.

tmmj - You should check out The Nasty Girl, a German film that looks at that.

Thanks for the books Sue Donim.

My German teacher had a real dislike of school uniforms. Because her generation (I suppose she'd be in her 60s now) had been brought up knowing what happened in the Holocaust and taught to reject all the trappings of the Nazis.

I watched this last night too and found it incredibly moving. All I can think whenever I watch any programmes about the holocaust is "How can people be so evil?" I don't know why I question it though as there is evidence daily that there is still so much hate in the world. Not on such a large scale granted, but still present. The young lads being chased and stabbed and victimised for being different in some way. The parents who can starve innocent children to death. People can be unbearably evil and programmes like this one force us to remember that. It is something that can never be forgotten so we can try to make sure it doesn't happen again.
The bit with the hand sculpture at the train station had me sobbing too, trying to imagine the terror of being forced onto a cattle carriage with my children, not knowing what was going to happen - or almost worse knowing... I can't imagine the horror.

When is the repeat onb? After yesterdays I wouldn't mind recording, might be able to use in a RE class one day- would seem v.relevant after all. And it was a fairly 'gentle' programme but still didn't shy away from real truths- think personalising history is immensely valuable.

On BBC2 tonight, peachy (unless you're in Wales)

Ah, I see you're in Carleon!

If there is any good that comes out of a programme like that is the fact that people like yourselves having watched it now know how important it is to stand up against such intimidation and racism and so on. If we remember these actions then in some small way their lives will have had a purpose.
I think it so sad with what is happening in Dafur and Zimababwe that still ethnic cleansing goes ontoday and yet the world watches and does nothing.

I may be able to record it onto DVD for you, Peachy. I'll try, anyway...

I found the black and white footage of people being herded onto the trains utterly harrowing. I had to stifle a few sobs.

It was harrowing. Agree with Jackie it was the memorial handprints at the station that started me off. Especially when the cameras pulled back from Jerry and all you could hear were his loud racking sobs. I also felt sorry for the lady giving him all the information at that point, she looked deeply upset too.

A link to the BBC site.

I think if anyone was wanting to understand what happened to the Jewish people then programmes like this are far more effective in bringing a face to the horror.

Can you imagine the horror of knowing your grandmother met her end in the back of a van? That knowledge must be horrible - Jerry's parents are dead right? Because it would be awful for his mother to learn the truth.