Who Do You Think You Are - Robert (Judge) Rinder 13th Aug

[kiterunner]

At 9 p.m. on BBC1, and repeated at 11:25 p.m. on Tuesday.

[Olde Crone]

Ooh, looking forward to this one.

OC

[Merry]

Just saw a clip from it on Loose Women. Looked very interesting, though for a second I didn't recognise him (didn't hear the intro) as he seemed to have developed a different accent :confused:

[Olde Crone]

Perhaps I should explain that I don't particularly like HIM, it's just that I always find Jewish research fascinating.

OC

[Margaret in Burton]

Really interesting.

[JBee]

Yes I agree - worth watching.

[kiterunner]

Episode summary:

Robert Rinder grew up in a working-class Jewish community. His parents separated when he was young, but he stayed close to both of them. His maternal grandmother Lotty, now age 94, never talked much about her father, except to say that he was "damaged in the (1st World) War". Her husband Morris, Moishe, or Moses, Robert's grandfather, was a Holocaust survivor but didn't talk much about it. He died in 2001 in London, age 78. In 1942 he filled in a form registering the deaths of his family members in the Holocaust - his parents, 4 sisters, and a brother, who all died in the gas chambers at Treblinka camp. The family lived in Piotrkow in Poland before the war.

Robert returned to Piotrkow, which he had visited once before about 20 years ago with Morris. He went to the street which Morris had shown him the previous time, where the family had lived, and met an historian whose family owned the building and were friends with Morris and his family, the Malinecki family. A birth record showed that Morris was born on the 11th Feb 1923 in the building. The historian showed Robert an article written about the Malinecki family which said that the father was a baker.

The first Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Europe was set up in Piotrkow. A document from 1942 showed the names of all the members of the Malinecki family, the parents' names being Elimalech and Chana Malinecki, shortly before they were sent by train to Treblinka. Morris, age 19, was sent to work in the glassworks from April to November 1942, and Robert went to see the site. He was then shown a registration form from Buchenwald, where Morris was held for a week before being sent on to Schlieben forced labour camp in Germany. Robert went to Schlieben and met a friend of Morris's from Piotrkow who was also at the Schlieben camp with Morris.

Morris was transferred to the Theresenstadt camp in Czechoslovakia in 1945. A card from there showed his birthdate as 5 Dec 1929. The camp was liberated by the Russians on 9th May 1945, a few weeks after Morris's arrival. Morris had altered his date of birth so he could be listed as an orphaned child and be sent to the UK. His date of birth on the list of children sent to Windermere was 1930. Robert went to Windermere and met Harry Spiro, who came to England with Morris. They watched a film of the boys' arrival at Windermere, and Harry said you had to be under 15 to qualify, which was why Morris lied about his date of birth. Robert met another historian who showed him a photo of Morris at Windermere and told him that the boys were sent on to various hostels. Morris's file showed that he worked as a pastry cook and hoped to become engaged to a British girl in 1950, asking for his date of birth to be corrected to 1st Feb 1923. There was also a letter from Morris to Dr Oskar Friedman who had looked after the boys at Windermere, inviting him to his wedding in 1951. Dr Friedman's reply said that he would try to get to the reception and that he was sending £10 as a wedding present.

Robert then went to London to see his mother Angela to find out about Lotty's father, whose name was Israel. Lotty's mother's name was Katie. Angela said that she thought Israel was from Russia, and showed Robert a photo of Israel in an army uniform. She also showed him the wedding contract dated 28 Jan 1920, which stated that Israel Medalyer married Kate Silver at the Great Garden Street Synagogue in London. As that synagogue no longer exists, Robert went to meet an historian in a similar synagogue in the East End, who showed him Israel's army record and naturalisation certificate dated 1919, which said he had 12 years' residence and 13 months army service. His parents' names were given as Louis and Lottie Medalyer, (Anglicised versions of their names) from Courland in Russia, now in Latvia. The army papers showed that Israel served in the King's Rifles from 1917 to 1919, but only served at "home", i.e. in the UK. He served in a training battalion, stationed at Canterbury. The service record showed his character as "good".

Israel's death certificate showed that he died on the 17th Nov 1950, age 61, of internal bleeding due to fibrosis of the liver, at Friern Barnet Hospital. Robert went to the site of the hospital, which closed down in 1993, and met an historian who showed him a photo of Israel on admission, and records which showed that he was admitted on a stretcher in 1936, deluded and hallucinating, abusive and threatening, convinced that his wife was having affairs. His diagnosis was "melancholia", i.e. depression, and he was said to have been cut off from his family in a pogrom before he came to the UK, with the severe emotional shock from that having given him a persistent tremor. He was at the hospital from 1936 until his death.

Robert went to the state archives in Riga, Latvia, and met an archivist who showed him the 1897 Russian census entry for Israel's family. The father's occupation was shown as pedlar and there were several children. The census showed the address where they lived, in Talsi. Robert went to Talsi to find out what happened there in 1905. He was told that there were revolutionary protests all over Russia in that year,and that the army was sent in to Talsi on the 4th Dec 1905 firing shots at the city, including one which hit the post office near the Medalyers' house, and that the army burned down many of the buildings in the city. Pogroms did not happen in Latvia but there were rumours about them. The army's violence was not specifically targeted at Jews, but at revolutionaries, who included many Jews. People had to hide indoors from the army but had to escape from the houses when they were set on fire, and it would have been a very traumatic experience for Israel, perhaps giving him PTSD.

[Guinevere]

Fascinating programme. Never encountered him before but I thought he came over very well.

[Ann from Sussex]

If you want to get round the rules, appear on WDYTYA. This is from TNA website:

"Some hospital records are subject to closure periods, for example, access is not usually granted to the records of individual patients less than 100 years old, except via a doctor or social worker. "

I thought this was the case when I was watching the programme so I've just checked in case the rule had been changed. Apparently not....except if you have the power of the BBC.

[Olde Crone]

I found this interesting and it was as sad as I expected it to be, but what a testament to the courage of survivors who lived their lives in spite of the unspeakable things they had endured.

I lived almost opposite the gates of Friern hospital for a few years and it was a horrible place even in its final "enlightened" years.

OC

[JBee]

It came across very well.

I was intrigued to see what the next paragraph said when he'd changed his dob at Windermere.

Also on his army record he was given a Good - the services have 4 categories Poor, Good, VG (norm) and Superior. So wonder whether he had problems whilst in the Army.

[kiterunner]

Here is Israel Medalyer with his mother and siblings in Whitechapel on the 1911 census:
https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/2352/rg14_01485_0125_03?pid=2733450&treeid=&personid=&rc=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=dNx2101&_phstart=successSource

[Nell]

A fascinating episode. I'd got a bit jaded with WDYTYA as so much seemed to be covering old ground and I was a bit anti-Rinder as I'd just seen the showy side on Strictly. But he was so genuine and he remembered his grandfather as he was in later life, so discovering what had happened to his family was poignant. So sad that he couldn't list the names of his siblings.

The other half of the programme about Israel was also interesting. I'm sure we all have relatives who had mental health issues, but there was such a stigma attached. My father recalled Friern Barnet Hospital when it was known as "Colney Hatch" as a bogey place.

[Olde Crone]

Nell

In fact, Colney Hatch was a separate area in the then vast hospital grounds. Colney Hatch had a working farm and inmates of the hospital worked there, usually epileptics or people of low intelligence who had been dumped in the hospital during childhood at the behest of the medical profession usually.

OC

[Ann from Sussex]

The Telegraph tv critic describes this episode as "as affecting as anything we've seen over the 14 years that WDYTYA has been running" and I totally agree with him. He comments that the Windermere section even made the historian cry. I thought when watching that I'd never seen that happen before. And Robert Rinder is so nice.

[Lynn the Forest Fan]

I found it really interesting, although I like him anyway. He came over as very genuine.

[Olde Crone]

It crossed my mind that Israel might have had Parkinson's like his daughter. It would explain his tremors.

OC