Robert Rinder
TV

My Family, the Holocaust & Me with Robert Rinder: TV judge thanks fans for support in ‘silencing haters’

My Family, the Holocaust & Me with Robert Rinder started last night

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My Family, the Holocaust & Me with Robert Rinder aired last night and the TV judge has since thanked viewers for their support.

Monday (November 9) evening’s episode was the first in the two-part series, which sees the barrister help second and third generations of British Jewish families retrace relatives’ footsteps and find out what happened to them during the Holocaust.

Robert Rinder went to Belarus on My Family, the Holocaust & Me (Credit: BBC)

What happened in the first episode of My Family, the Holocaust & Me with Robert Rinder?

In the first episode, Robert travelled to Belarus and met Helena, who was just a child when Nazi soldiers gathered local Jewish people – including children – to a ditch near the town where she lived.

The Nazis shot them all so that they fell into the ditch and covered them with dirt, even though some were still alive.

Helena was a child when the massacre happened (Credit: BBC)

Read more: Who is Louisa Clein? Emmerdale star who appears in Robert Rinder’s Holocaust series

Robert said some of his own relatives were killed in the massacre.

Looking at the mass grave on the programme, Judge Rinder said tearfully: “So what’s in a piece of earth, but in the story we heard… people still alive, buried here, moving… it’s impossible to describe. I’d like to name the families, just to know they’re remembered, that we told their story.”

The TV judge broke down as he visited the site of the mass grave (Credit: BBC)

What did Robert Rinder say about his new series?

On Twitter today (Tuesday, November 10), Robert praised viewers for tuning in as he called Britain “a great nation”.

This is why we are a great nation. We ALL understand: The responsibility to defeat evil starts with us.

He tweeted: “Last night over 3 million people from every community, age and background, from every region, watched a programme about the Holocaust.

“The usual hate on social media was silenced. This is why we are a great nation. We ALL understand: The responsibility to defeat evil starts with us.”

How did BBC viewers react?

On Twitter, viewers said they found the first part of the documentary “harrowing” and called it a “painful” but “vital” watch.

One said: “Just watched My Family, the Holocaust & Me with Robert Rinder. It was harrowing as you’d expect. The stories need telling or history will repeat itself.”

My Family, the Holocaust & Me with Robert Rinder (Credit: BBC)

Read more: Judge Robert Rinder tells celebrities to ‘give money to charity or shut up’ during furious rant on This Morning

Another tweeted: “The Judge Rinder Holocaust doc was pretty sobering. Just unimaginable evil.”

Someone else said: “That Robert Rinder programme about the Holocaust gives me a real lump in the throat, tear in the eye.”

A fourth wrote: “That Robert Rinder programme on Holocaust histories. Brave, painful, vital; everyone should see it.”

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What did you think of the programme? Leave us a comment on our Facebook page @EntertainmentDailyFix and let us know.


Nancy Brown
Associate Editor