'Great British Bake Off' host Matt Lucas discovers his family member lived with Anne Frank's family.
The Jewish comic actor and “Great British Bake Off” host Matt Lucas came across a very familiar name while researching his family’s history on BBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?” — that of Otto Frank.
In an episode of the celebrity genealogy show that aired June 16, Lucas learned that Werner Goldschmidt, his grandmother’s first cousin, had rented a room from the Franks while they were still living in their Amsterdam apartment. Goldschmidt was still living with them when they went into hiding in 1942 and was mentioned in Anne Frank’s famous diary.
In a clip from the episode on YouTube, Lucas reads a diary entry Frank had written on July 8, 1942, which describes Goldschmidt as a recent divorcee who was hanging around in the house too long that night, despite the family’s polite hints for him to get on with his evening.
“I would have read this diary when I was younger and never realized that she was talking about a relative of mine,” said Lucas, who was only vaguely aware that some of his family members had died in concentration camps.
https://www.jta.org/2022/07/06/culture/great-british-bake-off-host-matt-lucas-discovers-his-family-member-lived-with-anne-franks-family?