Bake Off host Matt Lucas said he received an “extraordinary glimpse into the power of the human spirit” after meeting a survivor of the Holocaust.
The TV presenter was joined by snooker champion Ronnie O’Sullivan, journalist Robert Peston, businesswoman Karren Brady and Love Island star Eyal Booker for a series of films with education charity March of the Living UK.
They each met with a Holocaust survivor and heard moving accounts of their experiences of one of humanity’s gravest atrocities.
The films were released on Thursday as the Meet The Survivors series to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day 2021.
Lucas met 93-year-old Harry Olmer and stressed the importance of remembering the horror.
He said: “If we forget these stories, if we forget what happened and how and why, we’re at risk of it repeating itself.”
O’Sullivan, the reigning snooker world champion, heard from 90-year-old Eve Kugler, while ITV political editor Peston listened to the testimony of Lily Ebert, 97.
Apprentice star Brady talked with Agnes Kaposi, 89, and Booker heard 90-year old Mala Tribich’s story of her life before, during and after the Holocaust.
Scott Saunders, the founder of March of the Living UK, said: “The Holocaust survivors are living embodiments of what it means to show resilience in the face of hatred and adversity.
“The incredibly powerful Meet The Survivors series of films with Matt, Ronnie, Robert, Karren and Eyal will help to educate people about the atrocities of the Holocaust and with that knowledge hopefully make sure that something like that will never happen again.”
The March of the Living is an annual event where Holocaust survivors lead a 3km (1.9 mile) march from the gates of the Auschwitz concentration camp to the gas chambers at Birkenau as a tribute to those murdered by the Nazis.
For more information, visit www.marchoftheliving.org.uk/meet-the-survivors.