Catch up TV

Episode 20 January 2025

The Holocaust is a moment in history that shocked the world, but as BBC journalist Jordan Dunbar discovers, it is a story that is being diluted through disinformation and cultural amnesia.\n\nIn a documentary marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, survivors of the camp have given new interviews about what happened at the largest mass murder site in human history. Around a million Jewish men, women and children were murdered at Auschwitz during World War II – millions more were systematically killed across Europe, including at other camps.\n\nJordan wants to know more about what happened at the concentration and extermination camp, and so begins his own journey of discovery - meeting survivors here in the UK and journeying to Poland to walk in the footsteps of those who lived and died there. \n\nJordan also meets Dov Forman, the great-grandson of the late Lily Ebert, an Auschwitz survivor who built up two million followers on TikTok by answering questions and explaining the Holocaust to younger generations. Jordan explores with Dov the challenges of social media disinformation and distortion. \n\nThe documentary also reveals the details survivors say should never be forgotten - of being separated from family members they would never see again; of trying to survive through slave labour when random executions were common; of the joy of liberation; and for some, the horror of discovering their loved ones had been gassed as part of a plan to eliminate an entire race. \n\nThe testimony of Renee Salt, Ivor Perl, Harry Olmer and Arek Hersh, who are survivors of Auschwitz or other camps, further reveals the reality of the Nazis' Final Solution, which saw families torn apart and millions transported to extermination camps, where few survived. \n\nJordan also discovers a story of hope from those who survived the camps and built new lives here in the UK, with some sent to the Lake District to recover from the horrors of their past.

Source: BBC 1