A BBC newswoman wept on camera after discovering her family’s Holocast past for a biographical series.
Natasha Kaplinsky, 34, was filming an episode of “Who Do You Think You Are?” centered on her family. A descendant of Polish Jews on her father’s side, Kaplinsky traveled to the town of Slonim in Belarus, which was part of Poland during World War II.
She broke down upon discovering that her great-uncle Abraham committed suicide in 1942 after the Nazis murdered his 2-year-old daughter. A month later, Abraham’s wife and 9-year-old daughter were murdered. Kaplinsky’s great-grandparents, Raphael and Melka, are believed to have been burned alive when the Nazis torched a synagogue. “I came back into the newsroom, and people asked, ‘How did the filming go?’ ” Kaplinsky told the Radio Times. “I didn’t know how to tell them that it was absolutely horrific, that I cried on camera, that I’m very distressed about what my family went through.”
She went on to say, “As a journalist, my job is to be dispassionate — I should never tell people how they should feel about a story.” The program will air Sept. 6.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
