‘Great British Bake Off’ host Matt Lucas discovers his family member lived with Anne Frank’s family
While the Jewish comic actor had been told that some of his family died in Nazi camps, he didn’t know any specific names or stories
Matt Lucas at a “Doctor Who” BBC America official panel during Comic-Con in San Diego, July 23, 2017. (Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images)
(JTA) – 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.
Lucas, who has also appeared in other shows like “Doctor Who” and movies like “Paddington,” was raised in a Reform synagogue in London, though his parents came from traditional Orthodox families. He expands on his Jewish identity in his memoir, “Little Me: My life from A-Z,” which has a chapter “J,” for Jewish.
Contestants on the wildly popular cooking show “The Great British Bake Off” have made occasional Jewish-inspired plates on the show, such as a charoset-and-matzah-topped pavlova in 2021.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
