Little Britain star, Matt Lucas, is the latest celebrity to trace their roots in BBC series, Who Do You Think You Are? and he uncovers that one of his relatives knew diarist Anne Frank and even appeared in her famous diaries.
Matt, who follows in the footsteps of Pointless host, Richard Osman, whose show you can read about here, was keen to use the show to find out more about his late grandmother, with whom he had a strong relationship. “I would love to reconnect with her,” said Matt as he began his search for answers. In the show Matt discovers that one of his ancestors had a connection to German-Dutch diarist, whose book has sold millions and who was murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
Werner Goldschmidt, Matt’s grandmother’s cousin, lodged with the Frank family before they were captured by the Nazis and even had a mention in the teenager's world-famous journal. Anne’s diary described Werner as a difficult person to live with. After reading the section, Matt said: “I read this when I was younger and never would have thought that the people Anne wrote about were my ancestors.”
He continued, stunned: “So my ancestor would have known Anne Frank, the writer of one of the most important books ever written. "It’s the one story that everyone knows. If you know, no other story about what happened to the Jews, everyone knows the story of the Frank family.” As the Nazi’s tightened their grip on society, the Frank family went into hiding and hid in secret rooms concealed behind a bookcase. Anne Frank’s Diary would later be published and become an international bestseller.
Anne Frank died of typhus at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in February 1945, days after the death of her sister, Margot. Their mother Edith had died that January — separated from her daughters in Auschwitz. Their father, Otto, was the only one to survive. And in 1947 he was the one who shared Anne’s diary with the world.
Earlier in the episode, Matt visits his mother Diana, who tells him what she knows about his grandmother, Margot. She shows him a series of family photos, including that of Margot’s father, Gustav, who passed away when she was 20-years-old. Much like his grandmother, Matt also lost his father at a young age. Margot’s extended family grew up in Berlin and were heavily involved in the synagogue. Diana said: “Grandma hardly ever spoke about her childhood.”
Following his chat with his mother, Matt heads to Berlin in Germany to find out more. He is keen to find out why Margot had to leave and what happened to the relatives that she left behind. He describes how he feels “anxious” to uncover the truth. He visits the apartment that his grandmother used to live in. He then went to the University of Berlin, where Margot began studying medicine in 1930. Matt is aware that ‘something’ stopped her from becoming a doctor, but what exactly was that?
Talking to historian, Dr Benjamin Kuntz, Matt discovers that following the Nazi’s rise to power, non-Aryan pupils were not permitted to study medicine. Adolf Hitler’s racist laws prevented Margot’s desire to become a doctor. Matt described how, despite asking Margot about her past, he thought that his grandmother felt “great pain” talking about life in Berlin. In 1935 - Hitler passed a law that found Jewish people to no longer be considered ‘full-German citizens’.
At the end of the episode, Matt emotionally reveals: "My grandmother always made it clear how proud she was of me and now, I'm proud of her." He describes how he feels "lucky to have the opportunity to learn about [his] family history."
Matt's full episode of Who Do You Think You Are is on BBC One at 9pm on Thursday, June 16
