Stephen Fry: From Sugar Beet to Auschwitz | Who Do You Think You Are? UK | S2 E1
Who Do You Think You Are? Full Episodes
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Stephen Fry traces his roots from a sugar beet factory in Bury St Edmunds back to Vienna and Surany, uncovering bravery, poverty, and relatives lost at Auschwitz.
Guided by family photos and records, Stephen follows his maternal grandfather Martin Neumann from Surany's sugar works to England in 1926. In Bury St Edmunds he meets farmer Robert Long, who knew Martin and went to school with Martin's daughters Gertrude and Margaret. In Vienna, the War Archives reveal Martin's First World War service and a 1916 bravery citation on the Eastern Front. City records lead Stephen to 33 Rembrandtstrasse, where a plaque lists his great-grandparents Samuel and Berta Brown, deported to Riga in 1942 among 65,000 Viennese Jews.
Back in Slovakia, Stephen finds his great grandfather Leopold Neumann's grave and meets Jan Stark, the town's sole surviving Jew, whose testimony brings warmth amid grief. With local help, he finally names the faces in a treasured family photograph: his great-aunt Regina (Reshka) and her husband Tobias Lamm, and their children Pavel, Livia and Aliza. A Yad Vashem search confirms that Regina and Tobias, and the girls, were murdered at Auschwitz and Stutthof in 1944; no death record is found there for Pavel.
On his father's side, the trail leads from Ella Constance Dunthorne Pring's birth certificate to master hairdresser Albert James Pring, then to the Lewisham Union Workhouse where Albert's father Henry is recorded as a pauper inmate. Records show Albert and his brother Ernest sent to Margate as sick children, and later Ernest imprisoned in Knutsford jail. At Margate Museum, Stephen confronts stark tuberculosis treatments that likely shaped their lives.
From the sugar beet that brought salvation in Bury St Edmunds to names etched in stone in Vienna, this moving Who Do You Think You Are? UK journey shows how chance, courage and tragedy shaped Stephen Fry's family.
#StephenFry #WhoDoYouThinkYouAre #Genealogy #FamilyHistory #Auschwitz #Vienna #BuryStEdmunds #HolocaustRemembrance
20 Comments
My late Dad lost all touch with his family during and after WWII, I really ought to try to find out about them.
Thank you Stephen for sharing this very emotional experience with us. I am so sorry for your loss. 🥰
Stephen Fry: From Sugar Beet to Auschwitz | Who Do You Think You Are? UK | S2 E1
Who Do You Think You Are? Full Episodes
138,255 views
Stephen Fry traces his roots from a sugar beet factory in Bury St Edmunds back to Vienna and Surany, uncovering bravery, poverty, and relatives lost at Auschwitz.
Guided by family photos and records, Stephen follows his maternal grandfather Martin Neumann from Surany's sugar works to England in 1926. In Bury St Edmunds he meets farmer Robert Long, who knew Martin and went to school with Martin's daughters Gertrude and Margaret. In Vienna, the War Archives reveal Martin's First World War service and a 1916 bravery citation on the Eastern Front. City records lead Stephen to 33 Rembrandtstrasse, where a plaque lists his great-grandparents Samuel and Berta Brown, deported to Riga in 1942 among 65,000 Viennese Jews.
Back in Slovakia, Stephen finds his great grandfather Leopold Neumann's grave and meets Jan Stark, the town's sole surviving Jew, whose testimony brings warmth amid grief. With local help, he finally names the faces in a treasured family photograph: his great-aunt Regina (Reshka) and her husband Tobias Lamm, and their children Pavel, Livia and Aliza. A Yad Vashem search confirms that Regina and Tobias, and the girls, were murdered at Auschwitz and Stutthof in 1944; no death record is found there for Pavel.
On his father's side, the trail leads from Ella Constance Dunthorne Pring's birth certificate to master hairdresser Albert James Pring, then to the Lewisham Union Workhouse where Albert's father Henry is recorded as a pauper inmate. Records show Albert and his brother Ernest sent to Margate as sick children, and later Ernest imprisoned in Knutsford jail. At Margate Museum, Stephen confronts stark tuberculosis treatments that likely shaped their lives.
From the sugar beet that brought salvation in Bury St Edmunds to names etched in stone in Vienna, this moving Who Do You Think You Are? UK journey shows how chance, courage and tragedy shaped Stephen Fry's family.
#StephenFry #WhoDoYouThinkYouAre #Genealogy #FamilyHistory #Auschwitz #Vienna #BuryStEdmunds #HolocaustRemembrance
A special salute to the amazing Jan Stark, the sole surviving Jew in Surany, Slovakia, who is living proof that despite every unspeakable evil that demons among us can do to human beings, someone will always survive, and with the determination that G-D has given to the eternal human spirit, "we will dance again." Also, a hat tip to the lovely lady in Vienna who created the plaque commemorating the Braun family and their neighbors at 33 Rembrandtstraße, a reminder that amidst the unthinkable cruelty of this world, there are also acts of kindness.
A heartfelt "well done!" to Stephen and all involved in researching this remarkable family history, and making this film. L'chaim to you all!