As Rob Rinder and mum Angela got their MBEs from Prince Charles for their services to Holocaust education, a third family member was very much in their thoughts – Rob’s Holocaust survivor grandfather.
Morris Malenicky survived three Nazi concentration camps before arriving as a refugee in Cumbria in 1945, and Angela says he would have been thrilled at his descendants being honoured at Windsor Castle for ensuring the horrors he lived through are never forgotten.
Angela, 68, who chairs the 45 Aid Society for survivors and their families, says: “Prince Charles asked me how long I’d been working at the charity, but I told him it was in my DNA because my father was a Holocaust survivor.
“I kept thinking about my dad when I collected the MBE. I imagined him sitting on my shoulder saying: ‘Gosh, that’s my daughter and grandson’. But I think he would have also been totally overwhelmed, as I was to receive it.”
Angela and broadcaster Rob fronted BBC1 documentary My Family, The Holocaust and Me in 2020, telling the story of Polish-born Morris, who lost his whole family in the Treblinka camp and died aged 78 in 2011, survived by his wife Lottie.
It came after Rob traced his family’s tragic roots on BBC1’s Who Do You Think You Are? in 2018.
Rebuke
Barrister Rob, who launched his TV career as Judge Rinder in 2014, says the decision to honour him and his mother is a powerful royal rebuke to those who try to distort or deny history.
He says: “It was incredibly humbling to be part of the joy at Windsor Castle.
“The staff at Windsor told us they hadn’t seen two people be awarded together for some time.
“It was a very special day and the Royal Family’s commitment by acknowledging Mum’s work is enormously powerful.
“It’s drawing a line in the sand to say, ‘Not only do we stand by you, but we stand with you in Holocaust education, and we are firmly against those who seek to deny it’.”
Both are pleas-ed their documentary is shown in schools to teach pupils about the Holocaust.
Rob says: “People are taking the stories and using them as a starting point to discuss what happened. There are so many lessons about the Holocaust.
“It’s important to teach against complacency.” We are chatting over coffee in London in what is a very personal get-together.
Angela and my own mum, Rose Smith, are friends through my mum’s voluntary work for the Lake District Holocaust Project, raising awareness of the story of the 300 survivors, including Morris, who came to Windermere in the Lake District after the war.
Rob also speaks to my mum regularly and so it is a privilege to sit down with them and share their MBE joy.
Both are incredibly genuine, kind and loyal people and are horrified by the Home Office red tape holding up Ukrainian refugees coming to stay with British families.
Angela says: “I think about my father and what his family went through, and now we’re seeing the pictures of mums and children living in shelters.
“When The Boys [as the young Holocaust refugees were called] came to live in the UK, they were welcomed into this country. Why can we not bring the people over and worry about the paperwork afterwards? Why can’t we open the doors to them as the Windermere families did?”
She says she would welcome a refugee into her home in a heartbeat, as would Rob, 43, if he had the room.
He says: “I think people see me on the telly and think I must live in a great big mansion. I wish! I have a spare bedroom but I’ve got someone staying with me at present. When they have gone, then they [Ukrainians] are very welcome. But we need to be able to cut the red tape.”
He recently went to the Ukraine border to report on what was happening there and while there he helped get some much-needed supplies to the Ukrainian family of Oksana Platero, the professional dancer he was partnered with when he appeared on Strictly in 2016.
Rob and Angela are very close and chat on WhatsApp daily.
They also have family gatherings with Angela’s husband, Nigel, and Rob’s brother, Craig, and his wife and two boys whenever diaries permits.
Rob, who hosts a drivetime show on Talk Radio every Friday, recently proved a hit on Good Morning Britain as a guest presenter alongside his good friend Susanna Reid.
He says: “Mirror readers have been especially nice saying they’d like me to be on GMB. Susanna is brilliant and we do have intellectual chemistry.”
In the meantime he is working on a new BBC documentary and is also writing a novel.
Proud mum Angela is delighted with his success and insists the Rob people see on TV is not a facade.
“He is the real deal,” she says.
*For more information about Angela and Rob’s Holocaust awareness work, visit 45aid.org
