Robert Rinder and his mother Angela Cohen with their MBE medals
(Picture: PA)Robert Rinder and his mum Angela Cohen both received MBEs at Windsor Castle for services to Holocaust education on Wednesday.
Mr Rinder, 43, and his mum appeared together in the 2019 BBC series My Family, The Holocaust And Me, which explored the stories of Jewish families.
Ms Cohen said her work heading the ’45 Aid society, a charity set up in 1963 by Holocaust survivors, had made clear the importance of “welcoming” those fleeing conflict.
Standing alongside her son, she said: “I think that everything that’s happening in the Ukraine is a lesson that we have to welcome everybody into this country like it happened for my father.”
Mr Rinder said their mission had been to “teach the world what happens when we forget history”.
He warned his time at the border had shown him “life can turn on a dime” after witnessing families escaping the war earlier this month.
While there, he found his Strictly partner Oksana Platero’s grandparents and aunt who he said were in “special difficulty.”
“It’s a magical relationship which doesn’t disappear,” he said of his bond with Ms Platero, with whom he reached fifth place on the show in 2016.
“While I was there, I asked what was going on with her family. I then found out that her grandparents were in special difficulty.
“Her family left with not enough medical things that they needed, a wheelchair and various things that people with disabilities need. We were able to get that stuff to her (family) and that was a real gift and a privilege.”
He said the dancer’s relatives had managed to cross the border but they had been forced to leave “last minute” along with many others.
“Life can turn on a dime, and so every person crossing, every mum with their kids in Dora the Explorer backpacks, each one of them is one of us,” he said.
“The great British public understand that and they’ve always answered the call.”
Mr Rinder said the experience had made him proud of being British and seeing so many people from the UK helping on the border was “a great light in all of the darkness”.
“I saw in Ukraine on the borders some of the best of British everywhere, people who answered the call to be the best of who we could be,” he said.
Previously, Mr Rinder traced his own family’s roots in an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? making new discoveries about his grandfather, Morris Malenicky, who is a survivor of two concentration camps.
Ms Cohen said her father Mr Malenicky would have been “so proud” to see his daughter and grandson both receive royal honours together, something she said he “couldn’t even have dreamed of”.
“It has been utterly overwhelming, and probably one of the most amazing days of my life,” she said.
