Antiques Roadshow fans were left in tears on Sunday night as a woman presented a trio of medals relating to the Holocaust on the show.
Each of the three medals was differently shaped – one as a watering can, another as a dog and the third as a shield.
“So who did they belong to?” the show’s resident war expert Mark Smith asked.
“They belonged to my mum and my grandmother,” the guest explained. “They were made for them when they were in Theresienstadt Camp.”
“So these are made in one of the camps of the Holocaust?” the expert replied, explaining that the camp was a holding facility and work camp located in the Czech Republic.
(Image: BBC)
“They were transports that came every day and took them to Auschwitz,” the guest informed him, and later said that her grandfather had been one of the men taken to the Polish camp of Auschwitz, while her uncle tragically died just three days before his 21st birthday.
One of the medals was engraved with a date, which the guest explained was her mum’s 16th birthday.
“So her 16th birthday was in the camp,” she explained.
(Image: BBC)
Devastated viewers took to Twitter in tears at the touching story, with one posting: “Such a sad story from the woman with the badges.”
Another wrote: “The watering can, oh my heart.”
“I’m welling up already,” said someone else.
“There is no level of hell, no level of punishment, no prison that is even 1-billionth of the suffering [done] to ordinary people,” another emotionally tweeted.
The expert went on to explain that Theresienstadt was a ‘show camp’ – used by the Nazis to showcase how “well” they treated their prisoners.
(Image: BBC)
“My mum was in a choir,” she explained. “She was never a singer, but there was an amazing Czech composer who was captured there, and he started an underground choir.
“They’d rehearse every night, and when the Nazis realised that this was being done they thought ‘Wow, let’s showcase this, show them how well we treat these people’, so they performed a concert to the Red Cross.”
In the end, the expert said he didn’t “ever think it’s right” to value items from the Holocaust, as the guest agreed.
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“Thank you so much for bringing them in,” he added.
“I’ve kept hold of my mum’s jewellery,” the guest later explained. “It’s something that meant a lot to her and it means a lot to me. It’s a reminder of what she went through and it’s very dear to my heart.”
Viewers were appreciative that the show refused to place monetary value on such objects, with one taking to social media to write: “This is incredibly moving. So glad they never value.”
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
