The BBC has issued an apology after facing criticism for a December 26 episode of its popular program The Repair Shop, which discussed the Kindertransport without mentioning Jews, despite the operation’s central role in rescuing Jewish children from Nazi persecution during the Holocaust, i24NEWS reported.
The episode centered on the restoration of a 19th‑century cello belonging to theater producer Martin Landau, who fled Nazi Germany for Britain at age 14 aboard a Kindertransport convoy. The cello had been smashed by Nazi guards shortly before his departure and remained unrepaired for decades.
The Repair Shop, known for featuring expert craftspeople restoring items of deep personal significance, devoted nearly a quarter of the hour‑long episode to the cello’s history and the broader context of the Kindertransport. British actress Helen Mirren presented the instrument to the team, and luthier Becky Houghton restored it before it was played on screen by Jewish cellist Raphael Wallfisch.
However, the program never stated that Landau was Jewish or that the Kindertransport was primarily a rescue operation for Jewish children fleeing Nazi persecution. Historically, the Kindertransport enabled the evacuation of approximately 10,000 Jewish children from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia between 1938 and 1939, with support from Jewish and humanitarian organizations.
The Jewish Chronicle reported that the word “Jew” was allegedly removed during editing from a sentence spoken by Mirren, which aired simply as, “…children were sent by the Kindertransport,” without further explanation.
The BBC has been forced to apologize for the December 26 airing of an episode in its series The Repair Shop, which, while discussing the Kindertransport for 15 minutes, fails to mention the Jews.
BBC fails to mention Jews in one hour The Repair Shop episode about a cello broken by Nazis
The Repair Shop is a BBC show about craftspeople bringing family heirlooms back to life. In the episode, renowned British actress Dame Helen Mirren takes her cello – damaged during the Kindertransport – for restoration.
The cello had belonged to her late friend, the theatre producer Martin Landau, and was broken by Nazi guards when he fled to Britain on the Kindertransport aged 14.
While the episode extensively details the story of the cello and the Kindertransport (for approximately a quarter of its 60-minute running time) it entirely fails to mention the Jews. The fact that Landau was forced to flee due to being Jewish is ignored.