"Who Do You Think You Are?" or "Weeping-along-with Stephen Fry"

[Plain Talker 11]

Did anyone else catch the "Who Do You Think You Are?" last night (25/1/06)?

 

I really enjoy these programmes, generally, but was incredibly touched by the story of Stephen Fry's Jewish relatives, the Lemm family who perished, in 1944, in Auschwitz during the second world war.

 

I found myself weeping along with him, as he uncovered this dreadful story of horror and atrocity.

 

So poignant, and so well presented. And quite topical, considering that today is the sixty-first anniversary of Auschwitz being liberated.

 

I found the plaque outside the apartment block in the Viennese Ghetto, where they lived, so moving, that the current tenant had been thoughtful enough to have a memorial erected.

 

I was also moved by the elderly chap, the sole surviving Jew from the Neumann's home town, and his story.

 

And Fry, carrying out the jewish ritual of placing a "remembrance-stone" on his great grandfather's gravestone. This voyage of discovery was captivating TV.

 

These potted histories are compelling watching, I can't wait to see who it is having their story told, next week.

 

PT

[Damon 10]

Agreed - it was a fine programme.

[Cols 10]

Julian Clarey next week. Excellent series - well done BBC2

[mega_monty 10]

When Jeremy Paxman was on the other week, he was reduced to tears when he found out what squalid conditions his ancestors lived in.

[timo 10]

Paxman's ancestors lived in relative squalor, but then so did the bulk of our ancestors judged by today's standards. I have only read a preview of the programme, but apparently he is surprised to discover that his direct ancestors on both sides were paupers. He should not be surprised at all, and nor should we. It is far easier to slip down the social scale than to climb it, and there is a dash of poverty in every British family tree. The expert genealogist, Anthony Camp claims that there are agricultural labourers in the ancestry of our Queen.

 

Conversely, it is often a mistake to assume that, because a person occupies an 'ordinary' position in society, their family [or a particular branch of it] has always been of 'ordinary' status. It is quite possible to discover that one descends from rich landowners dispossessed of land, as is the case with a branch of my maternal line [the Del Sherd family of Macclesfield, later known as 'Shirt' rather than 'Del Sherd', who bought land in Yorkshire, part of which was confiscated after the Civil War because of their Parliamentary or 'Roundhead' alliegance ]. There are some fascinating, often heartbreaking stories to be discovered in everyone's family tree. Fry and Paxman are no exceptions.

[Edd 10]

There are some fascinating, often heartbreaking stories to be discovered in everyone's family tree. Fry and Paxman are no exceptions.

 

I think this is the real point of the series - I wonder, has anyone been moved by the programmes to research their own family tree? My grandmother spent a number of years before she died looking back through our family tree - i think she made it back to the civil war too. But i never really took advantage of the opportunity to hear all about it before she died. Shame. I shall have to see if any of my other ancenstors availed themselves of her notes before the house was sold...

[carcrash 11]

Very moving and another one of those programs that should be shown in schools.

Did anybody see the Clarkson one in the last series?

[Damon 10]

Fry and Paxman are no exceptions.

 

Very true timo, and I was going to add earlier that being reduced to tears while making this programme seems to be the done thing. Not taking anything away from the participants' obviously genuine emotion, but I suppose we should just remember that once we look into the lives of our ancestors, we will almost certainly be surprised and moved by what we find.

 

My own grandad's family-of-twelve-in-Burnley stories always had me wide-eyed as a kid, but they were far from unique.

[carcrash 11]

I know very little about my family. My mother was adopted and my dad was an illegal immigrant who doesn't talk about his past.

[Plain Talker 11]

When Jeremy Paxman was on the other week, he was reduced to tears when he found out what squalid conditions his ancestors lived in.

 

PAxman's relaives' story was quite a typical tale of life for the poorer classes, a hundred / a hundred and fifty years ago. It was a sad tale, but it didn't move me as much as the tale of fry's relatives, the Lemm family.

 

Paxman's ancestors, and relatives, as hard, and as poor an existence as they had, didn't perish in a concentration camp. (IIR the programme C) The featured relatives of the paxman clan, from the Glasgow tenements, saw out their lives in a lot more comfort, after they emigrated to Canada. The vast majority of concentration camp inmates didn't have that privilege.

 

PT