BBC TV "WDYTYA?" Series 5 Episode #3: Jerry Springer

[Sue15]

Hello Kooky
In reference to your question concerning Holocaust records I have found that at the Camps in Germany there are excellent research facilities provided.
I recall at Belsen and Dora there are large book indexes of names where one can look for the victims and with staff waiting to help with enquiries. Neuengamme which is a huge complex just outside of Hamburg has an extensive library.

Many of the old camps survive as public reminders of the genocide. The presentation is excellent. Well researched with no attempt to excuse or justify the events- the staff are always helpful, and the settings speak for themselves. If anyone is visiting Germany its worth a couple of hours of your time to visit one of these places- there are a lot available - the experience is very humbling, shocking and upsetting but you will come away understanding far more than tv can offer.

At Bad Arolsen there is an international tracing service available for victims of the Reich. These records have only been recently opened to the public and will prove to be very significant to anyone's research.  email[at]its-arolsen.org
Thats the email address on the website for the records. There are 50 million of them.

I live in Germany and maybe able to offer a bit of guidance about the Death camps or places of the Reich in terms of visiting

kind regards

Sue

[Nick29]

I've had my own private weeps when I've discovered tragedies in my own family, but I can't begin to understand the sorrow that Jerry Springer must have felt when he learned the fate of his ancestors.  I think he probably had a suspicion that this is what happened - when Jewish people in Germany went missing at that time, it usually only meant one thing - but the reality still comes as a shock.

A very moving programme, and we should all be reminded of the horrors of that time, in the hope that it will never happen again.

[Rena]

There must be many who do not know what happened to their family.
Is there a way for the records to be searched without the help of the BBC?

Kooky

You could try the Central Database of Shoah Victims Names http://www.yadvashem.org/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_9E, which looks useful for anyone researching Holocaust victims.

Glen

I was shocked to find the surnames of my Hannoverian g.g.grandparents surnames listed, doubly so because my German research has only found ancestors in Catholic and Ev. Lutheran church records.  There's nothing to indicate whether these particular listed people were gypsies, or so called 'idiots', or whether they'd been caught helping 'undesirables' to escape.  Upon reflection I had heard that the Nazis went back through generations of family records to 'cleanse' the population of any Jewish genepool. 

Rena in Lancashire

[toni*]

I can understand that he didn't have information about his grandparents, that it was too painful to talk about, but he knew very little about the holocaust.   I find that odd.

The Holocaust i think everyone knows what a 'camp' was but do we all really know what really happened there? i didnt know all the details until last night, i didn't know how they gassed people, (i knew they were gassed and starved)

it was very moving the bit about Poland where they sent them there to filter out jews from the rest so to speak,but did anyone ever return wrongly sent there in the first place?

it hit home the Poland bit, becasue my Grandfather was from the Ukraine i belive he was sent to Poland and then sent to work elsewhere, he was not Jewish he was of Greek Orthodox Religion, but he was not allowed to practice this religion. I know he did work somewhere but where, and what type of work i do not know.
he came to the UK in 1948 as a dispalced citizen, i would be interested insearchign Holocaust records myself for his family but i do not know how to or even where to begin.
his mother also survived and was alive in 1955 but i do not know her name. 
again it was too painful to talk about and now my Grandfather has died there is nobody to ask.

[Sue15]

Re Rena's comment about the type of people sent to the Death Camps-these included besides Jews or people with Jewish blood; Germans who were Mentally Ill not just deficient, the Physically sick, opposition parties such as Socialists, Communists etc. The camps were opened shortly after Hitler came to power in 1933 to remove any opposition parties or indeed anyone who didn't agree with his actions.

Here is a link for the International Tracing Service at Bad Arolsen

http://www.its-arolsen.org/de/system/welcome/welcome/index.html - this is in English.

I know it is very hard for those affected to open up potentially tragic research records - some of the things are stomach churning but having German connections in our family we have found it better to challenge these horrors out of respect to those who suffered. In doing so not only have we had to look at the Holocaust aspects but also to delve into the Nazi records and accept the fact that a few ancestors were members.  The thing is with family history one had to deal with the bad bits.

All the best

Sue

[Siamese Girl]

It was all very tragic - but very predictable as to what it would all be about.

I was interested in his gt grandfather and the persecution in the 1880s and I realised that I know absolutely nothing about the place of the Jewish people in German society in the past. I would have liked to have learnt more about that.

Carole

[silvery]

An aside on the story -

The evil evil racist, Henriki,  from whom Jerry's g'g'grandfather in Poland called for help went  on to Africa, Namibia it was, and destroyed the highly literate and cultured people there, with exactly the same methods as employed later, the blueprint for the holocaust. 
In Namibia their holocaust is remembered also.  It is a story equally as harrowing.

[Hackstaple]

One is better able to understand the position of the state of Israel which is under permanent threat of destruction by people of another religion. One should also know that in Germany and Austria there are large Neo-Nazi movements still today and their followers are present in Britain.

Pogroms of Jews took place for centuries in Russia and Poland before WWII. At one time they were all expelled from England and only returned 300 years later under Oliver Cromwell.

They were persecuted viciously in Spain under Ferdinand & Isabella and were virtually obliged to convert to Christianity.

Great Britain took in by far the greatest proportion of Jewish refugees from Hitlerism and they have been very beneficial to our land.

[Willow 4873]

A very moving programme

Yes must do some dusting tonight I could hardly see the programme for it

Willow x