Britain’s Holocaust Survivors

Life after the unthinkable has clearly not been easy for Freddie, Gena and Zigi. Reminders of their years in Nazi concentration camps lurk constantly in the everyday, but most of all in food: Zigi picks up apples from his lawn, musing over how he missed them in the camps; Gena refuses to have another sandwich because it feels gluttonous, given the deprivations she endured in the 1940s. But although the memories linger, they aren’t allowed to dominate these lives. Daisy Asquith’s moving, restrained documentary marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day focuses as much on the ways in which this trio has moved on, and how they’ve tried to glean something positive from their experiences, primarily through giving talks to schools to ensure that the Holocaust is never forgotten. In its measured, almost matter-of-fact way, ‘Britain’s Holocaust Survivors’ does a similar job with serene effectiveness. ‘Prisoner Number A26188’, at 10.25pm tonight on BBC1, sees Lisa Bryer telling the story of another survivor, her aunt Henia.